It’s hard to imagine how an institution with “Jewish” in its name that bills itself as standing “firmly against antisemitism” managed to hire a juror with an open record of inflammatory antisemitic social media posts.

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival hired Anwar Karim, a senior at Morehouse College, as a judge on issues of Zionism and Israeli political issues. Karim participated in a college encampment protest and published such charming posts as “What’s a Zionist? A white supremacist trying to pose as a nomad” and, referring to Israel, “these monsters remain unresponsive unless the money is talking” and “it’s like they pop champagne each time they erase a last name.” He also accused Israel of murdering “women, men and children … just for sport.”

The guy made no secret of it.

Israel’s general consul to Atlanta, who sponsored the event, spotted Karim wearing a keffiyeh at the festival. The consulate withdrew its sponsorship and published a statement Sunday saying, without naming the offender, that there was “substantial evidence of this person’s participation in at least one anti-Israel university encampment in Atlanta, putting Jewish students at risk and promoting dangerous misinformation about the war in Gaza started by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.”

The festival organizers tried to have it both ways. They defended their decision to hire Karim but put out a statement affirming their commitment to fight antisemitism.

“This situation has surfaced clear deficiencies, gaps and adherence issues in our existing organizational processes and policies, including those related to antisemitism, BDS and cultural boycotts,” the film festival folks said.

“These shortcomings did not provide the clarity our community expects or that our organization needed to navigate this matter appropriately at a moment when clarity and trust matter deeply,” the statement added. “We fully acknowledge and accept responsibility for that.”

The statement went on to say that “ATL Jewish Film is, first and foremost, a Jewish institution, as well as a cultural one, and that identity shapes our responsibilities, especially in this moment. As a Jewish film festival, we have a responsibility, particularly at this fraught time, to stand firmly against antisemitism and to affirm the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.”

Film flyer from the Atlantic Jewish Film Festival. (From a post on X)

Finally, the statement said that the organization will clarify its stance on such hot-button issues as boycotts and anti-Zionism and will make those decisions transparently, but it’s too late to change anything now because “the jury process has concluded and cannot be revisited.”

Eitan Weiss, Israel’s consul general to the southeastern United States, based in Atlanta, said he was encouraged by the statement, calling it a good start. He said he felt it was necessary to take a stand, saying he would “go out against anyone who will promote antisemitism or anti-Zionism, and will call them out for what they are.”

The Jewish Federation of Atlanta made it clear that the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival was on notice.

“Current and future funding … beyond already committed security support, will be contingent upon demonstrated follow-through, including clarified policies, strengthened vetting processes and consistent operationalization of those standards.”

When an interviewer told him he wouldn’t vote for a candidate who accepts support from AIPAC, California Gov. Gavin Newsom stumbled over his answer.

“It’s interesting,” Newsom said, repeating the phrase multiple times. He distanced himself from the pro-Israel lobbying group, saying it is “not relevant” to his “day-to-day life,” but didn’t comment on whether he would ever accept its support. His critics said he “short-circuited.”

That was back in October. This week, he had a clearer answer.

“Never have and never will,” Newsom said on Sunday, asked whether he would take money from AIPAC.

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It wasn’t the first time that Newsom has shown off his record of not taking money from AIPAC, nor from other special interest lobbying groups in industries like tobacco and oil. And that record comes as no surprise: AIPAC has not historically gotten involved in state elections, and Newsom has run only in gubernatorial races since 2018.

But Newsom, who’s widely believed to be running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, was offering a clear sign that he is aiming to appeal to a voter base that is increasingly critical of Israel and uses AIPAC support as a litmus test of politicians.

Signs are piling up that support for Israel is a mounting liability for national politicians. Polling shows that support for Israel has plummeted to the single digits among Democrats and has declined on the right, too. An internal investigation by the Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, found that Kamala Harris lost votes in the 2024 election as a result of her stance on Israel’s war in Gaza, Axios reported this week.

Now, moderate Democrats who have records of voting for pro-Israel policies are swearing off AIPAC, signaling just how toxic the pro-Israel group has become in electoral politics.

Newsom was the first sitting mayor of San Francisco to visit Israel when he did so in 2008, according to J. As governor of California since 2019, Newsom’s constituency includes more than 1.2 million Jews, making up more than 16% of the American Jewish population, according to the 2024 American Jewish Year Book. 

Newsom visited Israel less than two weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, meeting with anguished Israelis as well as senior officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

During a wave of pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, Newsom signed legislation requiring public universities to update their codes of conduct and add mandatory anti-discrimination training for students amid a rise in antisemitic incidents on college campuses. He also signed a bill meant to prevent “hate littering,” aimed at limiting the dissemination of flyers with threatening speech.

He said earlier this year that he is “crystal clear in my love for Israel — and my condemnation of Bibi [Netanyahu], and there’s a distinction.”

In a podcast with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro in January, Newsom said “there was a dehumanization” in the way Netanyahu talked about Palestinian people when they met. Newsom said he disagrees with accusations of genocide — an increasingly common accusation among Democratic politicians — and that he was not “granting legitimacy” to them. But he said he understands “the tendency for people to assert” that Israel committed genocide because of its conduct in the war.

Weighted polling data compiled by Race to the WH shows Newsom as the leading Democratic presidential candidate, though some polls have him behind Harris or Pete Buttigieg. 

Newsom has taken a unique approach as a major Democratic politician over the past year, hosting right-wing figures such as Shapiro, Charlie Kirk and MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon on his podcast. “We can all be in our own lanes and be in total denial, and that’s a line we can draw, but we’ve got to draw a circle. We have to live together across our differences,” he told NPR on Tuesday, when asked about those podcasts. Newsom, who is currently on a book tour with stops in Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, has framed the tour as a way to appeal to voters in red states. Newsom made headlines on the Atlanta leg of his tour this week when he revealed that he “can’t read” his speeches because of his dyslexia.

Newsom’s Israel views have drawn criticism from some progressives, such as Rep. Ro Khanna from California.

“He doesn’t want to offend the AIPAC donors,” Khanna said in January, in response to Newsom not accusing Israel of genocide. “He doesn’t want to offend the donor class. And that explains his position on going to give Netanyahu a blank check right after Oct. 7, on not being willing to ever call out the funding we were giving, and not willing to call out that clearly it was a genocide, and then not willing to challenge the billionaire class on tax policy.”

There is no record of Newsom receiving donations from AIPAC, though a filing from his 2003 run for mayor showed that his campaign gave $500 to AIPAC as a “civic donation.” 

His latest comment about AIPAC, which came in an interview with YouTuber Adam Mockler on Newsom’s book tour, did not halt left-wing criticism of Newsom’s Israel-Palestine views.

“Gavin Newsom is a former AIPAC donor,” the X account Track AIPAC, which works to counter the pro-Israel lobby, wrote as the clip was circulating. “He refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza, attempted to crush pro-Palestine protests, and still supports unconditional aid to Israel. He will never be president.”

Track AIPAC’s co-founder, Cory Archibald, said in a follow-up that she took Newsom’s comment as a victory.

“I would also like us to take a collective moment to appreciate what a feat it is that Gavin Newsom feels he has to come out, in February 2026, to state that he rejects AIPAC,” Archibald wrote.

She added: “We will make AIPAC money the defining issue of the 2028 race. Watch.”

For more than 24 hours, families across Puerto Vallarta stayed indoors as security operations and cartel retaliation rippled through parts of Jalisco and beyond. When Rabbi Shneur and Mushkie Hecht of Chabad of Puerto Vallarta finally took their children out for a short drive to breathe, they described a scene that felt unreal: burned-out cars and trucks, scorched storefronts, and the kind of destruction that makes a place look unfamiliar in an instant.

Authorities say the violence followed a major Mexican special forces operation that killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), triggering road blockages and arson attacks in multiple areas, including Puerto Vallarta. The U.S. Mission’s security alert urged U.S. citizens in Puerto Vallarta (and nearby areas) to shelter in place until blockades were cleared, noting that flights had begun departing Puerto Vallarta again and advising travelers to confirm flight status before heading to the airport.

But the Hechts’ message isn’t primarily about what burned. It’s about what didn’t. As smoke and rumors spread, they wrote, “Phones were ringing nonstop, not with panic, but with care.” Neighbors checked on neighbors. Community members offered food, water, and help, whatever was needed, without waiting to be asked. In a moment designed to isolate people behind locked doors, the instinct was the opposite: to connect, to account for one another, to hold the line together.

They anchored that instinct in an old Torah image that feels painfully current. When Noah steps out of the ark into a world stripped down by catastrophe, his first act isn’t rebuilding a house or counting what’s missing, it’s gratitude. The Hechts invoked that moment plainly: devastation can be real without being the final word. Material things can burn. Bonds between people can deepen.

On the security front, Mexico has moved additional forces into Jalisco as officials try to stabilize the region and prevent further flare-ups.

The Hechts ended with what reads like a communal mission statement for the days ahead: peace of mind, peace of heart, and forward movement together. Destruction is visible, but so is love, unity, and the kind of responsibility that turns a frightened city into a caring one.

The secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella to which the Palestinian Authority belongs, blasted calls for Hamas to disarm and transfer its civil authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza on Monday. He also said that Hamas is not a terrorist group.

“They don’t want Hamas to have any role in the Strip,” said Azzam al-Ahmad in an interview with an Egyptian paper. “We completely reject this, because Hamas is part of the Palestinian national movement.”

He also said that the PLO has held “continuous national dialogue with [Hamas] in order to fulfill the requirements for their entry into the organization,” with the expectation that Hamas would join the PLO.

The PLO is internationally recognized as the organization that represents all Arabs who originate from Gaza, Judea and Samaria, wherever they live throughout the world, while the PA more narrowly administers to Arabs in parts of Judea and Samaria. The PLO, headed by al-Ahmad, establishes guiding principles for all the institutions it oversees.

Azzam al-Ahmad, PLO Sec. Gen., sits for an interview with an Egyptian paper. (From a post on X)

Al-Ahmad insisted that the PLO “always rejected decisions issued by international institutions or governments to classify [Hamas] as a terror organization, as they are part of the Palestinian national fabric.”

“Everything that is said about disarming Hamas and that it is a terrorist group is rejected by us,” he added, stressing that “Hamas is not a terror organization.”

The Fatah official said that he also rejects any reforms to the PA’s educational materials that contain indoctrination of Jew hatred and incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis, because his folks are smarter than those calling for reform.

“We will not allow them to be modified,” he insisted. “What they are calling for is fabricated reform, and we tell them that we have minds and educated people more than you do, and we have more scholars than they do — some of whom America relies upon.”

“We challenge anyone who says that the security services are pursuing resistance fighters,” he added, unapologetic and unabashed about terror attacks carried out against Israelis.

Al-Ahmad said that the PLO has been negotiating with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine — all terror groups — to join the body of the PLO, which he hopes will happen soon.

“We have begun … with the comrades in the Popular Front, and made significant progress with them so that they’ll return to engagement. An agreement has also been reached with the Democratic Front,” he said.

All of these groups are designated terrorist organizations with the blood of innocent civilians on their hands, having murdered or caused lifelong injuries to both Israelis and Americans.

Disturbingly, while the Palestinian Authority — the very body that al-Ahmad oversees — has not been invited to join the Board of Peace, a committee to liaise with the board has been established, with Board of Peace High Representative Nickolay Mladenov serving as the liaison.

A squadron of U.S. Air Force F-22 stealth fighters departed Royal Air Force Lakenheath earlier today and has now landed at an Israeli Air Force base in southern Israel, according to reports from Kan News.

Twelve F-22 Raptors, widely considered among the most advanced air superiority fighters in the world, were seen taking off from the UK installation. One aircraft reportedly returned mid-flight due to a technical issue, while the remaining jets continued on to Israel.

The arrival of American fighter jets on Israeli soil is itself uncommon. The deployment of F-22 stealth aircraft in the country is described by Kan as highly unusual, signaling a notable shift in the current military posture.

TUCSON Arizona The family of Nancy Guthrie has increased the reward for information leading to her recovery or the arrest of those responsible to one million dollars as the search for the 84 year old enters its twenty fourth day.

Guthrie was taken from her home in the dark of night on February 1 in what authorities are investigating as a suspected abduction. Surveillance footage released by investigators shows a masked individual near her front door the night she disappeared.

Initially the reward was set at just 2500 dollars by the Pima County Sheriff. As the case drew national attention and concern for her safety intensified the amount grew substantially. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also offering a 100000 dollar reward.

In an emotional plea her daughter Savannah Guthrie described the unbearable pain the family has endured.

“It is Day 24 since our mom was taken in the dark of night from her bed, and every hour and minute and second and every long night has been agony since then of worrying about her and fearing for her and aching for her and most of all just missing her,” Guthrie said.

She added, “Someone out there knows something that can bring her home. Somebody knows, and we are begging you to please come forward now.”

Investigators say they have received thousands of tips but no major breakthrough has been announced. Authorities remain deeply concerned for Nancy Guthrie’s health, noting that she requires daily medication.

The FBI encouraged anyone with information to contact the tip line at 1 800 CALL FBI or 1 800 225 5324 as the search continues.

Law enforcement officials say the investigation remains active and they are pursuing every possible lead as the family waits for answers and holds onto hope.

A senior Israeli defense figure has told BNN that Iran may already possess operational chemical and biological warheads for its ballistic missiles, with the IDF confirming to BNN that there has been no change in Home Front Command (Pikud HaOref) civil-defense directives.

The assessment gained fresh attention after Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF) and an adviser to the Israeli government on defense matters, said the threat is “not theoretical” and that there is “a good chance they already have it,” describing the capability as something Israel believes “may be operational.” In a separate interview with the Washington Free Beacon, Avivi said Israel’s defense establishment is actively discussing the possibility of chemical and biological warheads and is factoring those capabilities into target planning for any potential strike, warning that missile production is continuing “around the clock” and that newer systems are more sophisticated than those used in the June 2025 war.

That dovetails with reporting from Iran International, which cited informed military sources saying the IRGC is developing biological and chemical warheads for long-range ballistic missiles, alongside upgrades to command-and-control and moves involving launcher deployments, while also noting Tehran’s longstanding denials of pursuing “unconventional” weapons.

BNN pressed Avivi directly on the obvious public question: if the chemical/biological threat is real, why hasn’t Pikud HaOref distributed gas masks or issued new guidance? Avivi’s answer was blunt, Israel will prioritize offense and military defense layers, and he does not expect a gas-mask push “at this time.” He argued Israel’s air-defense architecture can handle the threat, even as he acknowledged the unique psychological impact of non-conventional warheads and the limits of standard sheltering if chemical agents are dispersed at scale.

Avivi also framed what he sees as Iran’s motive and timing. He said Tehran accelerated missile production after the June 2025 “12-Day War,” driven by a desire for revenge and to rebuild deterrence after what it views as a damaging blow. He outlined three potential paths to escalation: an Iranian preemptive missile strike (including possible “non-regular” warheads), an Israeli preemptive strike, or a U.S.-led operation—which he said he expects, claiming Washington has effectively decided to confront the regime decisively.

The civil-defense question is especially charged because Israel previously halted routine gas mask distribution to the general public years ago, shifting production mainly toward rescue services and ending broad civilian distribution programs.

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Finally, the “unconventional warhead” fear sits inside a wider chemical-weapons context. Open-source research and U.S.-linked assessments have pointed to Iranian work on pharmaceutical-based agents affecting the central nervous system and to concerns about Chemical Weapons Convention compliance, while Iran simultaneously invokes its history as a chemical-weapons victim, including the 1987 Sardasht mustard gas attack that the OPCW notes killed over 100 people.

Tucker Carlson was interviewed on Saudi state TV on Saturday, following his interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, in which the podcast host and former Fox News personality did not leave the airport, staying only for a few hours to cross-examine Huckabee on his various positions, including his meeting with Jonathan Pollard.

It appeared that Huckabee had failed to make a dent in Carlson’s views, as Carlson reiterated his past anti-Israel positions and took some shots at the ambassador. While Carlson pressed Huckabee pretty hard during their interview, he was much friendlier toward his Saudi host and failed to mention past Saudi human rights abuses, like the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Doubling down on his dual loyalty charge, Carlson said, “What I really object to, what makes me mad, is when American leaders, whose job it is to represent Americans, are more loyal to a foreign country than they are to their own.”

“They have instead sent billions and billions and billions of dollars to a foreign country. And none of that has helped the United States. In fact, it’s hurt the United States,” he added.

“How is it in America’s interest to decapitate the government of Iran on behalf of Israel?” he asked, lashing out at the United States government for its involvement in Iran. “Not to rebuild a new Iran, but just to kind of kill the people in charge and hope something better happens. To create chaos in Iran, as we have done at Israel’s behest in so many countries in the region, as you well know since you live in the region.”

“This is bad for us, this is bad for the surrounding countries, it is bad for the world, I don’t think it’s good for Israel,” he fumed. “Actually, I don’t think Israel understands its own long-term interest very well, [but] that’s my view.”

He also blasted Israel for what he called a “land grab” in Gaza.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“The idea that we had to pretend that the Gaza operation is like a response to October 7, and it’s not an effort to expand the territory of Israel, that’s insulting to me because that’s a lie,” he raged. “That’s what it is.”

In the interview, Carlson was asked about a clip in which he denounces Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in these words:

“He’s not the only world leader who’s evil and destructive, by the way, again, but he is. And he’s hurting the United States, and he’s destroying his own country, and I think he imperils the world. I think that clearly they’re going to try and blow up al-Aqsa Mosque, I believe that, on the Temple Mount to build a third temple, and then you’ve got global war. So like he’s a threat. There’s no question he’s a threat to the Trump administration. No question.”

Carlson said he stands by every vile word.

Carlson also blasted Huckabee and presented himself as the clear-eyed Cassandra watching politicians stumbling around in “a haze,” befuddled by Israel’s cunning.

“I watched someone like Mike Huckabee, who’s the U.S. ambassador to Israel … betray the United States again and again and again by promoting Jonathan Pollard, who was a spy against the United States, who betrayed the United States, and Mike Huckabee, who’s our ambassador, is helping, truly, the most destructive spy in American history,” he said.

Pro-Israel politicians in the United States are under “a kind of spell, a kind of hypnosis, a kind of haze that people are in, where they’re doing things for reasons they don’t understand.”

Roughly a third of all active U.S. naval ships are now positioned across the broader Middle East region, according to The Washington Post, as Washington sharpens both deterrence and strike options against Tehran.

The naval posture is anchored by major carrier power: USS Abraham Lincoln has entered the Middle East region with its escorts, while the Pentagon has also directed USS Gerald R. Ford to move toward the theater as a second carrier group. In the Gulf, U.S. 5th Fleet assets include destroyers operating near the Strait of Hormuz and Bahrain-based littoral combat ships equipped for mine countermeasures.

The ship surge is part of a wider buildout that includes more than 150 U.S. aircraft shifting into Europe and the Middle East, with many positioned farther from Iranian missile reach while still able to support regional operations.

For Israel and other U.S. partners, the message is straightforward: Iran, and its Iran-backed proxies, are being warned off escalation, while the U.S. builds a layered force that can defend bases, protect key sea lanes, and rapidly scale strikes if ordered

Bloomberg reports Turkey is making preparations for a possible US-led strike on Iran, including contingency thinking about moving into Iranian territory if a “power vacuum” emerges, aimed at blocking a refugee surge toward Turkey.

Turkey shares a long frontier with Iran and is already politically scarred by past migration shocks, still hosting millions of Syrians. Separate reporting in recent weeks has described Turkish planning for an on-the-ground “buffer” on the Iranian side of the border in a worst-case collapse scenario.

Turkey and Iran on the map of Middle East (Western Asia) in soft grunge and vintage style, like old paper with watercolor painting.

Publicly, Turkey has also warned that foreign intervention in Iran would deepen the crisis, while urging Washington to pursue negotiations and de-escalation.

If the US escalates pressure on Tehran, border moves by a NATO member could redraw the map fast, and pull new actors into a conflict zone that Israel has been warning could widen beyond Iranian proxies.

An El Al flight was sent back to Israel after eight hours in the air due to the snowstorm that hit the northeastern coast of the United States on Monday.

El Al Flight 1027 was flying near Corsica in southern Europe when it received the message that Newark Liberty International Airport, where it was scheduled to land, had suspended landings due to the heavy snows, high winds and poor visibility. After discussing several options, including transferring to a North American airline, the decision was ultimately made to return to Ben Gurion Airport.

The airplane touched down safely at Ben Gurion Airport a few hours later.

Thanks to the storm, Newark Airport had widespread cancellations and delays. Once the airport resumes regular operations, the flight will be rescheduled, according to an El Al official.

Human Rights Watch released a report Tuesday documenting the horrific and outrageous human rights abuses the Iranian regime has been perpetrating on its own people since the bloody crackdown on protesters in January to suppress the demonstrations and mask its actions.

The regime continues to detain massive numbers of people, holding them in unofficial and often undisclosed locations, where they are tortured, forced to sign false confessions under duress and subject to arbitrary and secret executions.

The report focused on interviews with 23 people whose relatives were killed, detained, or disappeared, as well as with doctors, other professionals and prisoners. It also examined abuses in the provinces of Alborz, Eastern Azerbaijan, Fars, Golestan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Razavi Khorasan and Tehran.

Despite the bloody crackdown last month, Iranians defiantly march against the Iranian regime. (From a post on X)

In addition, the human rights group reviewed footage of violence committed by security forces and more than 100 televised forced confessions.

“As a whole nation remains in shock, horror, and grief and families still search for their loved ones in the aftermath of the massacres of Jan. 8 and 9, authorities continue to terrorize the population,” said Human Rights Watch senior Iran researcher Bahar Saba. “Arrests continue, and detainees face torture, coerced ‘confessions’ and secret, summary and arbitrary executions.”

“Given the immense dangers those detained and forcibly disappeared face, international monitors should immediately be given unhindered access to all detention facilities and prisons,” he said.

A 19-year-old wrestling champion, Saleh Mohammadi, was accused of killing a member of the security force. Following a forced confession and a brief trial that reportedly included zero evidence, Mohammadi was sentenced to death by public execution. In two videos reviewed by the NGO, two 16-year-old girls were forced to say that they had received foreign support to protest.

Saleh Mohammadi, a 19-year-old wrestling champion, is sentenced to a public execution. (From a post on X)

When protests initially broke out, the regime sought to pacify the people by offering a $7 monthly stipend. When that didn’t work, they initiated the bloodiest crackdown in recent memory. The Iranian regime cracked down on the protesters by shooting live rounds into dense crowds and ramming vehicles into protesters, among other methods. In one particularly grisly incident, protesters fled into the twisting alleyways of a bazaar to escape the gunfire of security forces, but one of the stores caught fire, with hot winds quickly spreading the conflagration. With no choice but to escape the flames, protesters ran straight into a hail of bullets, as a ring of gunmen had surrounded the perimeter and shot them to death as they broke out of the raging inferno.

One Iranian doctor told The Jerusalem Post that people who had come to the hospital for treatment for wounds inflicted by security were then killed by those forces in their hospital beds during treatment.

The authorities also shut down the internet, plunging the country into a communications blackout that served two purposes: to prevent the protesters from organizing and to conceal their murderous activities from the rest of the world.

The regime succeeded on both counts. The protests quickly fizzled out, and the number of those killed remains unclear. However, some reports put the death toll at upwards of 36,000 people, the overwhelming majority of whom were killed on Jan. 8 and 9, the two bloodiest days of the protests.

These are alleged photos of a teenager, left, sentenced to death, and a young married woman killed in the protests. (From posts on X)

The Iranian authorities admit to about 3,000 deaths and 11,000 detentions.

“Everyone you see has been horribly tortured… All [confessions] are coerced, they [the authorities] would write up what they want themselves or would dictate what to write … and if you did not accept to sign, they would hit you with a[n electric] shocker on the head,” said a message from a detainee who is being held in solitary confinement. “You are sitting there blindfolded, shackled and in handcuffs, encircled by several men; you would accept anything.”

Families have complained that the bodies of their loved ones were not returned to them for burial. Detainees have been denied access to legal counsel and communication with their loved ones.

“Detainees have no access to lawyers,” one lawyer explained to the human rights NGO. “Families do not want to retain Article 48 lawyers. Independent lawyers who go to officials to take on protest detainees’ cases are told by the authorities, ‘Are you an Article 48 lawyer? No? Then leave, you cannot take the case.’”

Article 48 lawyers are government-approved and have been known to participate in human rights violations, so families of detainees don’t trust them.

According to HRW, detainees have reported being beaten until they lost consciousness multiple times and being subjected to sexual violence.

An Israeli intelligence assessment, cited by The Financial Times, suggests that the United States could sustain only a short campaign of intense strikes against Iran, even after the arrival of a second aircraft carrier strike group in the region.

According to the assessment, the U.S. military might be capable of maintaining four to five days of intense operations against Iranian targets before logistical constraints like ammunition shortages begin to limit further action. With a smaller or limited-scale campaign, this window could extend to roughly a week, the sources said.

Despite these concerns, President Donald Trump downplayed operational limits, stating in a Truth Social post that a military campaign could be easily won. Trump highlighted the United States’ prior successful strikes, including those on Iran’s nuclear program, as evidence of the country’s ability to prevail in a future confrontation.

In response to heightened regional tensions and the possibility of a prolonged military confrontation, Israeli hospitals are actively boosting preparedness, upgrading facilities and expanding emergency capacities to ensure continuous care for civilians and soldiers.

In Tel Aviv, Assuta Medical Centers has been preparing a 200-bed underground hospital designed to provide treatment even during sustained missile barrages or other security emergencies. The facility is equipped to serve large numbers of patients safely despite disruptions above ground, with medical and support infrastructure built to withstand a long war.

Medical workers wheel a patient to safety after a building at Soroka Hospital was hit by an Iranian missile, in Beersheba, on June 19, 2025. (John Wessels/AFP)

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has outlined a nationwide strategy for hospital readiness that includes expanding bed capacity, increasing stockpiles of emergency medical supplies and mobilizing medical staff for extended high-demand scenarios. Government officials emphasized that preparedness plans account for the full range of possible conflict developments, including extended combat operations that could place a heavy strain on the health system.

A powerful and symbolic proposal is shaking Argentina’s capital.

Buenos Aires city legislator Yamil Santoro has introduced a bill to rename “Estado de Palestina” street (State of Palestine street) to “Familia Bibas,” (Bibas Family street) in honor of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, the Argentine Israeli family brutally murdered by Hamas.

Yamil Santoro

The proposal has received strong backing from Argentine President Javier Milei, with some reports describing the initiative as aligned with his position, though the measure is currently a pending bill in the Buenos Aires city legislature and has not yet been enacted.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei waves upon arriving for the signing ceremony of the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, at the Gran Teatro Jose Asuncion Flores of Paraguay’s Central Bank in Asuncion on January 17, 2026. The South American bloc Mercosur and the European Union signed a deal on January 17, 25 years in the making, to create one of the world’s biggest free trade areas at a time of growing protectionism and volatility. (Photo by Luis ROBAYO / AFP via Getty Images)

The Bibas family became one of the most haunting symbols of the October 7 massacre. Shiri Bibas was kidnapped from her home in southern Israel along with her two red haired sons. Ariel was just four years old. Kfir was only nine months old, one of the youngest hostages taken that day. Images of the terrified mother clutching her babies as terrorists surrounded them shocked the world and became an enduring reminder of Hamas brutality.

For months, the Bibas family’s fate remained uncertain, with global calls demanding their release. The orange balloons and orange shirts worn in solidarity referenced the boys’ distinctive red hair and became a symbol of prayer and hope across Jewish communities worldwide.

Tragically, it was later confirmed that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were murdered in captivity.

Both children held Argentine citizenship in addition to Israeli nationality, and their murder deeply impacted Argentina’s Jewish community, one of the largest in the world. President Milei has taken an openly pro Israel stance since taking office, repeatedly condemning Hamas and strengthening diplomatic ties with Jerusalem.

Supporters of the proposed street renaming say replacing “Estado de Palestina” with “Familia Bibas” would serve as a moral statement, honoring innocent victims of terrorism and ensuring their memory lives on in the heart of Argentina’s capital.

The bill remains under consideration and has not yet passed. If approved, it would mark a historic and highly symbolic move by the city of Buenos Aires.

A hand-drawn swastika discovered inside the U.S. Coast Guard’s main recruit training base in Cape May, New Jersey, has been removed and referred to the Coast Guard Investigative Service for a formal investigation, the service confirmed.

According to reporting from The Washington Post, a Coast Guard instructor spotted the symbol late last week on a men’s bathroom wall. The Coast Guard said it moved quickly to erase the graffiti, while investigators work to identify who drew it and whether additional incidents are connected.

Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday traveled to Cape May and addressed roughly 900 recruits and staff, issuing a blunt warning aimed at anyone trying to import extremist ideology into the ranks: “Anyone who adheres to or advances hate or extremist ideology, get out. Leave.”

The location matters. Training Center Cape May is the Coast Guard’s sole enlisted accession point, essentially the front door for the entire enlisted force, and recruit training is an eight-week pipeline that runs year-round. A hate symbol in that environment is a direct attempt to intimidate and normalize antisemitism at the point where new service members are being shaped.

In recent months, the Coast Guard faced backlash over language in a workplace harassment manual that described swastikas and nooses as “potentially divisive,” prompting public outcry and congressional pressure, including a hold on Lunday’s nomination by Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Jacky Rosen until the guidance was tightened.

US Coast Gaurd performing securuity checks of pleasure craft @ Tall Ship Event

Israel Police say skeletal remains found in a wooded area outside Jerusalem have been identified as a Finnish tourist who disappeared in March 2024, after forensic testing confirmed a DNA match and the family was notified.

The remains were located near the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev after children walking in the area spotted bones shortly before Shabbat and alerted a parent, who called police. During searches at the scene, officers also found a foreign passport tied to the missing tourist.

Hebrew media reported the tourist arrived in Israel in late January 2024 and was last seen on March 10, 2024, at a hostel on Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem, before contact was lost and earlier searches failed to locate her.

Police have not released the circumstances or cause of death, and investigators are still examining how the remains and passport ended up in an area described as not particularly isolated.

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social with a jab at California Governor Gavin Newsom, posting: “Wow! Gavin Newscum just dropped out of the Presidential Race!!! President DJT.”

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There has been no official announcement from Newsom declaring a formal presidential campaign or withdrawal. The California governor had been widely viewed as a potential Democratic contender and was reportedly discussing a possible run with family members during the launch of his recent book tour. Early polling in some surveys showed him among the Democratic Party’s prospective frontrunners should he enter the race.

Trump’s post appears to mock speculation surrounding Newsom’s ambitions rather than respond to a confirmed campaign decision.

The president’s comment comes amid renewed scrutiny of remarks Newsom made just one day earlier while addressing a Black audience. In an apparent attempt at self deprecating humor, Newsom said, “I’m one of y’all. I scored a 960 on the SAT and I can’t read,” a line that quickly drew attention and sparked criticism online.

As of now, Newsom remains governor of California and has not formally entered or exited the 2028 presidential race.

In an example of perhaps the greatest chutzpah of all time, a group called Kufiyas in Buchenwald is planning a protest to target the site of the former concentration camp because of its ban on keffiyehs and other anti-Israel symbols. The group, which claims under its mantle Jews, queers and anti-fascists, says the ban is “massively intensifying repression against solidarity with Palestine.”

The protest, scheduled in April, “vividly illustrates the events of the former concentration camp” and will include panel discussions and lectures. The group also demanded of the management of the Buchenwald Memorial a list of concessions: conduct open discussions of the “genocide” in Gaza at the memorial itself; remove the ban on anti-Israel symbols and stop labeling them antisemitic; and permit the entry of people who criticize Israel and express solidarity with Gazans. However, the protest will likely not take place at the site of Buchenwald because of the ban.

Anna explains the importance of sticking it to the Jews at Buchenwald in this video. (From a post on X)

The incident that sparked the movement to organize the protest was a visitor to the camp who gave her name only as Anna. Told she could not wear her keffiyeh at the Buchenwald Memorial, she requested an expedited court application to allow her to wear it. Her request was denied, and the Buchenwald Memorial moved to formalize the ban against keffiyehs.

The Kufiyas in Buchenwald described Buchenwald as promoting “historical revisionism and genocide denial” and choosing to “consistently spread Israeli propaganda and provide ideological support for the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

The group said that by banning the keffiyeh and labeling it antisemitic and fascist, Buchenwald is “relativizing and whitewashing German responsibility for the genocide of European Jews by shifting it onto the Palestinians.” The cancellation of a lecture by Jewish anti-Zionist Omri Böhm also generated anger among the group’s members, who they say was “disinvited under pressure from the Israeli embassy for having criticized Zionism and the genocide in Gaza.” Demonstrating their utter incomprehension of the memorial’s purpose, the group pointed out what to them appears to be a double standard: Israeli flags and symbols are permitted in Buchenwald.

The Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled Iranian opposition group that openly calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, claims it carried out an armed attack Monday targeting the residence of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to BBC Persian reporter Siavash Ardalan, multiple eyewitnesses described an unusually heavy security presence around the area today. However, authorities have not clarified the reason for the heightened deployment.

The MEK, which has a long militant history and was previously designated as a terrorist organization by several Western governments before being delisted, has not provided independent evidence of the alleged attack. Iranian officials have yet to publicly confirm or deny the claim.

The situation remains unclear as of now, with no official statement detailing damage, casualties, or the scale of the reported incident.

Former United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman posted a tongue in cheek video from Jerusalem alongside current Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, the two seen playing Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog and dedicating the song to Tucker Carlson.

“Back in Jerusalem for another gig with @USAmbIsrael Mike Huckabee. Our first song dedicated to @TuckerCarlson. Enjoy!” Friedman wrote in the caption accompanying the clip.

The lighthearted dedication of Elvis Presley’s classic track follows a recent clash between Huckabee and Carlson at Israel’s airport, where the ambassador pushed back against what many described as antisemitic and anti Israel narratives echoing Qatar and Iran talking points.

The musical dedication appeared to serve as a playful but pointed response to the controversy.

JBN reported on Feb. 21 that the scholarly journal PLOS ONE, which, despite what it calls its “fair and robust review” process, allowed a Hamas official to slip right past that process and coauthor an article entitled “Rebuilding Gaza’s health system: A qualitative study of healthcare workers’ experiences and lessons learned from responding to mass casualty incidents (2018–2021).”

After JNS broke the story, the journal is investigating to find out how that happened. Beth Baker, senior media relations manager at the Public Library of Science, which publishes the journal, told JNS in an interview on Monday, “PLOS upholds the highest international standards for research integrity and publication ethics, and follows up on all concerns raised about our publications in accordance with COPE guidance and PLOS policies.”

“Following this query, we will investigate if any breach of our editorial policies has occurred, and if so, will take action accordingly,” she added.

Yousef H. Abu Alreesh, Gaza’s deputy health minister and a Hamas official wanted by the IDF, is one of the coauthors of the article. He is also the 10 of spades in the IDF’s unofficial deck of playing cards.

Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza. (Credit: Getty Images)

The authors, who refer to the “ongoing genocide” in Gaza, claim to hold “no competing interests.” In addition, the PLOS ONE website proclaims its commitment to fairness and rigor in its guidelines for publishing peer-reviewed articles.

Under a section titled “Fair and Robust Review,” the website says, “PLOS ONE staff and our expert board of Academic Editors work together to ensure that the peer review process is fair, fast and thorough and that the work we publish meets high ethical and methodological standards in line with our editorial policies.”

It remains to be seen how the journal managed to let a Hamas official slip past its “fair and robust review.”

In an interview with JNS, Dr. Yael Halaas, president and founder of the American Jewish Medical Association, said that “this is yet another example of biased articles weaving in slanted political propaganda that have been published in ‘scholarly’ scientific journals.”

“We have seen a disturbing pattern in peer-reviewed academic journals: material that is not grounded in rigorous science, that lacks any balanced or critical perspective and that undermines the integrity of the scholarly process,” she said. “What is presented as ‘peer reviewed’ too often reflects ideological bias rather than credible scientific inquiry.”

“The militarization of hospitals and ambulances destroys the sanctity of these spaces,” she added. “The hoarding of critical civilian aid and supplies by Hamas should be mentioned in this article. Both are major determinants in the health of the Palestinian people. These biased articles never address this sad reality.”

“Academic publishing has been hijacked, and it’s frightening to witness this occur in science and medicine, where objectivity and integrity should be paramount,” she concluded.

In a BBC interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made the explosive allegation that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already started World War III.

“I believe that Putin has already started it,” Zelensky said. “The question is how much territory he will be able to seize and how to stop him. Russia wants to impose on the world a different way of life and change the lives people have chosen for themselves.”

He said that Ukraine is only the first step for Russia. “Putin will not stop at Ukraine,” he declared, which is why “stopping Putin today and preventing him from occupying Ukraine is a victory for the whole world.”

A private house is destroyed after a Russian mass missile and drone attack on Feb. 22, 2026, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

When asked about land concessions for peace, Zelensky said it’s not a concession; it’s an abandonment of the people living there to Russia’s tender mercies. He also said that such concessions would not satisfy Russia in the long term. Eventually, after recovering from the war, the imperialist government would attempt to seize more land.

“I don’t look at it simply as land,” Zelensky explained. “I see it as abandonment — weakening our positions, abandoning hundreds of thousands of our people who live there.”

After recovering from the war, Zelensky said he can’t predict Putin’s next move, but “that he would want to continue [fighting] is a fact.”

After last week’s peace negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, Zelensky expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome.

“Sensitive political matters, possible compromises, and the necessary meeting of leaders have not yet been sufficiently addressed,” he said at the time.

More talks are expected to be held at the end of this week, according to Zelensky’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov.

In an address to a plenary session of the Knesset today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized Israel’s military prowess and its strong relationship with the United States in explaining why Iran would do well to refrain from attacking the Jewish state.

He pointed to the unprecedented relationship between himself and President Donald Trump, having returned from a record-breaking seventh visit to the U.S. president, a number unmatched by any other world leader. He also praised the cooperation between the two countries’ security forces, which he also said was unprecedented.

“I recently returned from my seventh meeting with the president of the United States since he was elected,” he told the session. “Our security agencies and their security services — there has never been anything like this.”

The prime minister also praised Israel’s strength and readiness, saying that in partnership with the U.S., Israel has degraded the threats it had faced, in an apparent reference to the war with Gaza and Iran’s proxy terror groups.

The Knesset plenum in session. (Photo by Marc Israel Sellem/AFP via Getty Images)

“Israel has never been stronger,” he declared. “No one knows what the day will bring. We are prepared for any scenario.”

Netanyahu also said that he had sent a message to Iran warning of terrible consequences if it attacked Israel.

It would be “perhaps the worst mistake in its history,” he said. “We will respond with a force that they cannot even imagine.”

“This is not the time for argument,” he continued. “In these days, on the eve of Purim, in those days as in this time, we need to close the ranks of the people, stand shoulder to shoulder.”

“I trust in our strength. I trust our commanders. I trust our fighters. I trust our people. I trust you, the citizens of Israel,” he concluded. “We have already proven that when we stand together, we achieve great achievements. On the eve of Purim, we will stand together, and with God’s help, we will ensure the eternity of Israel.”

Axios‘s Barak Ravid and Mark Caputo reported Monday that U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine advised President Donald Trump to exercise caution regarding a military strike on Iran. The general has remained Trump’s most trusted adviser on military matters. While he had pushed for the Venezuela strike, Caine nevertheless expressed reservations that a military campaign could entangle the United States in a prolonged conflict that might endanger American lives, although no one has suggested boots on the ground.

The pendulum has swung back and forth as the president, buffeted by pressure from both sides, has alternated between attempting diplomacy and threatening strikes. Among those urging caution are Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner, who have told Trump that every day of delay serves to strengthen his hand.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, left, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Vice President J.D. Vance has also advised caution. While not outright opposed to a strike, he has expressed concerns about the risks and complexity of military entanglement with Iran. While hoping for the best possible outcome of the negotiations to be held Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, Vance has expressed skepticism that they will yield a positive result, a position he shares with other top U.S. officials, according to an unnamed source.

“He’s presenting information on both sides of the argument to help the president make an informed decision,” said another unnamed source familiar with the talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has kept a low profile on Iran, preferring to focus on Venezuela and Cuba, in a departure from his usual hawkishness on the authoritarian regime.

Outside of the administration, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has emerged as the most vocal advocate of a strike on Iran and complained to Axios on Saturday about the advisers to Trump who he believes are restraining him. He said that he told Trump in a phone call that he should ignore those advisers and move ahead with a military campaign against Iran. He has also expressed concern that the moment to strike will dissipate as time passes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would also prefer a U.S. strike on Iran and is increasingly concerned that such an operation is growing less likely. After meeting with Trump, he told an unnamed source that he felt he had not swayed the president. “Is he still with us?” he reportedly asked.

Update: Trump issued a statement on Truth Social after this article posted denying that Caine had advised against a strike.

“Numerous stories from the Fake News Media have been circulating stating that General Daniel Caine, sometimes referred to as Razin, is against us going to War with Iran,” Trump wrote. He added that the story is “100% incorrect.”

He also wrote that “if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is [Caine’s] opinion that it will be something easily won” and that if the U.S. does strike Iran, “he will be leading the pack.”

In an interview Monday with Kan Reshet Bet Radio, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that if Hamas doesn’t disarm by a certain date, then Israel will retake Gaza beyond the Yellow Line with international approval and the support of the United States.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel controls about 53% of the Gaza Strip behind a line of demarcation that has become known as the Yellow Line. Hamas ostensibly agreed in October to the terms of the ceasefire, which included the complete disarmament of the terrorist group, but has since reneged, firmly rejecting calls to disarm.

Smotrich indicated that Israel is giving President Donald Trump “a chance to do it his way,” but when Hamas continues to refuse to disarm, as it inevitably will, Israel will take over. The International Stabilization Force, an international force of troops meant to support local policing and help with the management of Gaza’s daily affairs, will quickly leave — if they even arrive before Israel moves in to disarm Hamas — to allow Israel to finish the job of demilitarization, Smotrich said.

Thousands of Gazans continue to return to Khan Yunis, from which Israeli forces have withdrawn, on the second day of the ceasefire on Oct. 11, 2025. (Photo by Abdallah F.s. Alattar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Trump had expressed confidence that Hamas would voluntarily disarm but warned the group of the consequences of failing to do so.

“The war in Gaza is over,” Trump said last week, addressing the Gaza Board of Peace at its inaugural summit on Thursday. “Hamas has been, I think, they’re going to give up their weapons, which is what they promised. If they don’t, it’ll be, you know, they’ll be harshly met, very harshly met.”

Smotrich said that the IDF has been preparing for this moment, having never given up its objective to disarm Hamas and ensure the terror group never again poses a threat to Israel.

The IDF “is already preparing for this and drawing up plans,” he said. “At the political level, we have held several discussions to refine those plans.”

“There are currently two or three alternatives that we are examining to determine which is the most appropriate,” he added.

“In the end, [the IDF] will conquer the Gaza Strip and establish Jewish settlement there,” Smotrich concluded.

As part of a fact-finding mission, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon led a delegation of U.N. envoys on a tour of Auschwitz and other Holocaust sites in Poland, then traveled with them to Israel and showed them the sites in Israel that were affected by the Oct. 7 attacks, as well as historical sites. The U.N. envoys, some of whom have never before visited Israel and who hail from Italy, Australia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Albania, six African nations, three Latin American ones, five Pacific Island countries and Papua New Guinea, will also meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and senior Israeli officials.

Danon tweeted from Auschwitz, “Together with a delegation of UN ambassadors, we visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp today. Here, on this cursed ground from which the blood of our sisters and brothers cries out, we understand exactly where hatred leads when the world remains silent. Today I am leading the largest delegation of UN ambassadors that has ever marched through Auschwitz-Birkenau. We will never forget. We will never forgive.”

He also sent a message of defiance to Iran from the site of history’s greatest massacre of Jews.

“The regime in Iran openly declares that it wants to destroy the Jewish people,” he posted. “And ‘never again’ is now. We have a strong army and the ability to defend ourselves. We will not allow any murderous regime to threaten us.”

Danon took the U.N. envoys to the Gaza Envelope to the site of memorials for the slain victims of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“We visited the memorial site for the Nova Music Festival, the Nahal Oz base, and Kibbutz Kfar Gaza,” he wrote on X.

“The ambassadors were exposed to the horrors of the October 7 [attack] and the stories of heroism of our people.”

The ambassador emphasized the importance of seeing the sights in person.

Together with UN ambassadors, we visited the Kerem Shalom crossing today. For months, Israel has been accused of preventing in the inflow of humanitarian aid.

Today, the ambassadors stood at the crossing, and witnessed the aid trucks that enter the Gaza Strip every day.

I made… pic.twitter.com/RFmeB6f2pc

— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) February 22, 2026

“Whoever hears these testimonies and looks the victims’ families in the eyes — cannot return to the diplomatic comfort zone,” he said. “One tour of the Gaza Envelope is worth more than a thousand discussions at the UN.”

Danon took the envoys to the Kerem Shalom crossing to see for themselves the efficient and massive flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Together with UN ambassadors, we visited the Kerem Shalom crossing today,” he posted. “For months, Israel has been accused of preventing in the inflow of humanitarian aid. Today, the ambassadors stood at the crossing, and witnessed the aid trucks that enter the Gaza Strip every day.”

Danon emphasized that as long as Hamas remained part of the equation, Gaza will never be able to move forward.

“I made it clear that as long as Hamas is in power, there will be no future of reconstruction in Gaza,” he said. “The international effort must focus on one thing: removing the terrorist organization Hamas from the equation.”

The visit reportedly represents Israel’s diplomatic effort to shift entrenched attitudes at the U.N., which, since the start of the war, has harshly condemned Israel at every turn and attempted to isolate Israel on the world stage.

According to a news report on Sunday, an investigation by the Democratic National Committee to discover what went wrong in the 2024 presidential election found that Kamala Harris lost because of her support for Israel and the Democratic Party policy on the Gaza war.

DNC Chairman Ken Martin ordered the investigation but said he would not publish the findings because it served no purpose.

The DNC “completed a comprehensive review of what happened in 2024,” he said in December. The organization was “putting its learnings into motion.”

“Here’s our North Star: Does this help us win?,” he added. “If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters after certifying the Electoral College vote for the 2024 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Representatives from the IMEU Policy Project, a Palestinian advocacy group, met with the DNC and told the DNC that the party lost the election because of Harris’ policy on Gaza. The DNC confirmed that its own findings matched that conclusion. IMEU accused the DNC of keeping the report secret because of its potentially explosive findings, which the DNC has denied.

Divisions over Israel policy within the Democratic Party have created tension between the far-left progressive flank of the party and the moderate Democratic wing. Harris tried to strike a balance between sympathy for the people of Gaza and support for Israel, but while she didn’t break with Biden on Israel, she took a harder stance. This may have cost her votes with swing voters and moderate Jewish Democrats who are pro-Israel. On the other hand, the progressive left that is virulently anti-Israel felt she didn’t go far enough, costing her votes with that demographic as well.

On her book tour for her memoir describing the events of her presidential campaign, Harris said that the Biden administration should have more forcefully criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and shown greater empathy for the people in Gaza.

In her book, 107 Days, Harris wrote that she believed her support for Gaza cost her votes. She said that she had urged Biden to show more sympathy for the people of Gaza and that his unpopularity, which she partly blamed on his stance on Israel, hurt her electoral prospects.

Tucker Carlson was spotted at the White House moments ago, fueling fresh speculation he’s meeting with President Trump or senior aides as the administration navigates intensifying internal fights on foreign policy and Israel.

The timing is notable as Carlson has been in the middle of a fast-moving backlash after he publicly backtracked on a claim tied to an AI-generated image alleging Israel’s president had links to Jeffrey Epstein, an allegation Israel’s side flatly rejected.

Carlson also recently drew heavy scrutiny for a combative, high-profile interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee that spotlighted a widening split on the American right over Israel, pressure Trump has reportedly tried to tamp down behind the scenes.

WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 16: Construction continues on U.S. President Donald Trump’s ballroom extension at the White House on September 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump said that he and private donors will pay for the $200 million, 900-person capacity ballroom extension to the White House. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

This isn’t Carlson’s first White House appearance in Trump’s second term; he’s been seen at official events before, which just shows how influential he remains inside the MAGA ecosystem even as his Israel rhetoric keeps triggering blowback.

Eighteen-year-old Joshua Levy was reportedly punched in the face at a Scouts camp in Lardner Park in West Gippsland, Australia, on Saturday afternoon. Levy was wearing a kippah and carrying an Israeli flag when he was assaulted. Victorian police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

The young man was first verbally abused and then punched in the face, resulting in facial bruising and swelling. Levy and his father submitted a police report the next day.

Levy said in an interview that he initially thought the tap on his shoulder was a friendly one. When he turned around, he said he was punched three times and he “instantly felt hazy.”

“Hurting people based on their opinions is not OK,” he added.

Police reportedly stated that they believe the attack was a targeted antisemitic hate crime and warned that such behavior “will not be tolerated.” They have asked anyone with any information to come forward.

The Anti-Defamation Commission, an Australian Jewish organization that fights antisemitism, said in a statement that Levy was “visibly Jewish” and that this attack reflects the trend of growing antisemitism in Australia. The chair of the Commission, Dvir Abramovitch, said the injuries sustained by the teen could have been much worse and exhorted the police to treat the crime with the gravity it deserves.

Joshua Levy. (From a post on X)

The attack on Levy is the latest in a string of incidents that have alarmed the Jewish community in Australia and increased the fear that Jews are no longer safe in a country that had been traditionally welcoming to Jews. It follows a car ramming into a synagogue in Brisbane last Friday, a diplomatic visit to the country by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and a shooting at Bondi Beach on Chanukah that left 15 dead and dozens wounded, among thousands of incidents since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The Brisbane synagogue attacker was arrested and faces charges of willful damage as well as hate crime charges. David Crisafulli, the premier of the state of Queensland of which Brisbane is the capital, said the Jewish community found the affair “very distressful” and emphasized the need for stronger laws surrounding the protection of worship.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has advanced a move to raise Israel’s VAT exemption on personal imports from abroad to $150, allowing Israelis to buy more items online without paying the 18% VAT. For many consumers, the change means cheaper prices and more options, especially on clothing, household items and small electronics ordered from overseas.

But local retailers say the policy hurts Israeli businesses that must still charge VAT and operate under higher costs. Store owners warn that the exemption gives foreign online sellers a major advantage, making it harder for local shops to compete and putting jobs at risk. In response, business groups have organized protests and urged lawmakers to block the move. The cabinet has approved the change, but it still faces a Knesset vote that could overturn it.

Israeli security forces say they have arrested four suspects who were planning a shooting attack targeting IDF soldiers in the city of Carmiel, in an operation by the Shin Bet and the Israel Police.

According to authorities, the four suspects are Arab Israeli residents of northern Israel, including two minors. During questioning and investigation, security officials allege the group was actively preparing a shooting attack against IDF soldiers in Carmiel. Some of the suspects received training and guidance on how to carry out the planned attack, the security services said.

Weapons Confiscated from the Suspects

The arrests were made in a coordinated operation by the Shin Bet and the Northern District Police, who said the plot was disrupted before any weapon was used, and no injuries have been reported. The suspects are expected to be indicted in Haifa District Court following the filing of charges.

A large fire severely damaged the main hospitality tent in Lizhensk, just days before the annual yahrtzeit of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk, zt”l, one of the most significant dates on the Chassidish calendar.

The blaze broke out early Tuesday morning at the site where thousands of visitors usually gather for hachnosas orchim and communal meals during the yahrtzeit period. Firefighters responded to the scene and worked to contain the flames, but the large tent was destroyed before the fire could be fully extinguished. The structure had been set up in advance of planned gatherings for the upcoming yahrtzeit.

No injuries have been reported, and local authorities say they are investigating the cause of the fire. Photos and videos shared by attendees and local media show significant damage to the hospitality area, with charred remains of the tent and equipment scattered across the site. The only thing that remained whole when the smoke cleared was the kugel, defying all odds.

Community members immediately mobilized to assess needs and begin planning replacement arrangements for visitors who are expected to arrive this week. Organizers of the yahrtzeit are working to ensure that guests who travel to Lizhensk for the annual event will still have facilities for meals and lodging.

Le Figaro reports that, according to multiple sources it interviewed, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was targeted by an “internal offensive” aimed at pushing him aside, allegedly driven by former President Hassan Rouhani, just before the repression began on the night of Jan. 8–9, when protests were at their peak.

TEHRAN, IRAN – FEBRUARY 9: (—-EDITORIAL USE ONLY – MANDATORY CREDIT – ‘IRANIAN LEADER PRESS OFFICE / HANDOUT’ – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS—-) Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses to the public on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution according to Iranian state television in Tehran, Iran on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Iranian Leader Press Office/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The claim lands amid an unprecedented crackdown. Reports from inside Iran describe mass arrests and lethal force; AP notes Jan. 8–9 as the deadliest days of the repression, with rights groups citing thousands killed while the regime issued far lower figures. Le Monde also reported nationwide internet shutdowns and open chants of “death to Khamenei” as the demonstrations surged.

As Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and his son and potential successor are increasingly spending their time in hiding, Khamenei has been making contingency plans to keep the authoritarian regime intact and protect it from collapse by appointing layers of successors, beginning with his most trusted adviser, Ali Larijani.

After the June war in which both Israel and the United States attacked Iran, much of Iran’s leadership was decimated. In order to centralize power and restore security, Khamenei appointed Larijani to head the Supreme National Security Council.

Larijani comes to the job with an impressive resume. A member of a powerful political family, Larijani served as a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and as Speaker of Parliament. He negotiated a deal with China worth billions, and amid the current regional crises and conflict with the U.S., he has been liaising with powerful allies such as Russia and China on behalf of Iran, as well as regional players such as Qatar and Oman. He has also taken a leadership role in the current nuclear negotiations, overseeing the talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his U.S. counterparts, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Ali Larijani (Credit: Seda Ravandi/AFP via Getty Images)

Khamenei has appointed four layers of successors for each leader and has instructed them to each appoint several successors of their own to ensure the government continues to run efficiently if he is killed, as well as a number of his successors. By appointing Larijani to the key role — he is popularly seen as the one who will take complete control even if he can’t be the supreme leader, a role that can only be filled by a Shiite — Khamenei has effectively sidelined Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose role has been shrinking as Larijani’s stature grows.

According to a report from Iran International, Larijani and other senior Iranian officials carried suitcases of cash with them on a trip to Lebanon, whereupon they delivered the cash to Hezbollah.

Larijani oversaw the brutal crackdown of protesters in January that saw thousands — and perhaps tens of thousands — killed, with some reports putting the death toll at upwards of 36,000. As a result, the de facto leader of Iran and his many layers of successors, i.e., anyone in his inner circle, are hated by the Iranian people. The outcome of a strike that takes out some of these layers is therefore anything but certain.

An Israel Police spokesman told JNS on Sunday that visiting hours for Jews to the Temple Mount have been extended by one hour during the month of Ramadan, from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. During the Muslims’ holy month, non-Muslims are forbidden entry in the afternoon.

The Temple Mount Yeshiva expressed its “deep appreciation” to the police and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for “the expansion of the hours of ascension to the Temple Mount during the morning.”

On Jan. 21, the police for the first time allowed Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, distributing guidelines for prayer at Judaism’s holiest site. Some have criticized the move as a departure from the agreement in 1967 between Israel and Jordan, the authority in charge of the Islamic Waqf that runs the mosque on the Temple Mount. While Israel maintains general security in the area, the Waqf controls the gates and the interior.

Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. (Credit: Getty Images)

The status quo, which has allowed Jews to visit only at certain times and has forbidden them to pray at their holiest site, should have long ago generated outrage among decent people, regardless of the belief of many Orthodox Jews that stepping foot on such sacred ground is prohibited.

Since Ben-Gvir started his tenure as security minister in 2022, groups of religious Jews have tested the limits of the status quo, visiting the Temple Mount and even engaging in public prayer.

Ramadan is a time of increased tension between Muslims and Jews, and Israel deployed extra security personnel as about 80,000 Muslims — mostly Israeli Arabs but also including about 10,000 Arabs from Judea and Samaria — ascended the Temple Mount.

Senior Israeli police officer Arad Braverman said that the police will work to allow everyone — Muslims and Jews — to enter the compound safely and securely. All will be welcome except rioters, he emphasized.

Police spokesman Dean Elsdunne also told JNS that Jews will only be permitted to come “during the customary hours according to the customary rules that have been in place” and that prayer guidance sheets will be distributed, where Jews will be able to pray in assigned areas under the watchful eye of the police.

United States

• U.S. Army Sgt. Roddie Edmonds to Be Posthumously Awarded Medal of Honor for Saving Hundreds of Jewish POWs During the Holocaust
• US Secret Service has shot and killed a man who attempted to infiltrate the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago.
• The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group is currently traveling through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean.

Iran

• Iran is operating on the basis that U.S. military strikes are inevitable and imminent, even as both sides continue to engage diplomatically and negotiate on a nuclear deal.
• Iranian officials say ballistic missile launchers have been positioned along Iran’s western border and southern coast, placing U.S. bases and regional targets within range.
• Iran Strikes Secret €500M Missile Deal with Russia for 2,500 Verba Systems to Rebuild Air Defenses
• Israel’s security cabinet held an urgent situational assessment on Iran.
• Heroic protesters clash with IRGC security forces at the Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology in Tehran, Iran.
• US negotiators will hold another round of talks with Iran on Thursday in Geneva.

Israel

• An official from Israel’s Finance Ministry declared that Israel will not fund reconstruction in Gaza.
• Uganda to Honor Entebbe Hero Yoni Netanyahu With Airport Statue.
• President Herzog Will Travel to Ethiopia to Deepen Ties.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is slated to visit Ethiopia this week and meet with Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, along with representatives from the Jewish community, on a diplomatic mission to strengthen ties between the two countries.

The visit marks yet another milestone in the improvement in relations between Ethiopia and Israel since the days when Israel had to sneak Ethiopian Jews out of the country. During the 1980s and 1990s, the persecution of Ethiopian Jews, along with famine and economic instability, worsened to the point that the Israeli government decided to mount a rescue operation. The Mossad created a luxury diving resort in an abandoned tourist village in Sudan, with Mossad agents working undercover as swimming instructors. From there, they smuggled the Ethiopians to their new home in Israel.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. (Photo by Utku Ucrak/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A statement from Herzog’s residence in Jerusalem said that the visit “reflects the historic bonds of friendship between the two peoples and marks a significant milestone in deepening cooperation between Israel and Ethiopia, as well as broader cooperation with the nations of Africa.”

The statement went on to say that the two countries “share a long history of diplomatic, cultural and people-to-people ties. Across generations, a deep bond has existed between the Jewish people and the Beta Israel community, with historic aliyah operations bringing tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, where they have become an integral part of Israeli society.”

Today, the Jewish Ethiopian community numbers nearly 200,000, with the population roughly split in half between Ethiopian-born and Israeli-born Jews. In Israel, about two percent of the population is Ethiopian.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar traveled to the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, last year, where he met with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos. At that meeting, he warned of the dangers the Houthis, an Iranian proxy terror group that operates out of Yemen, pose to both Israel and Ethiopia.

“Just yesterday, they hit near our airport with a missile,” Sa’ar said then, speaking to reporters with Timothewos. “They are a threat to Israel, Africa and the international community.”

“Terrorism is a common threat. Al-Shabaab collaborates with the Iran-backed Houthis,” he added, referring to the jihadi group based in Somalia that has attacked Ethiopian targets.

Uganda is set to unveil a statue of Yonatan Netanyahu at Entebbe Airport to honor the fallen hero, known as Yoni Netanyahu and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s older brother, who led the operation to rescue 102 Jewish and Israeli hostages from a French airline that was diverted to Entebbe Airport by a group of terrorists in 1976.

Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) and the son of the country’s President Yoweri Museveni, issued the following statement on X:

“In order to strengthen our close blood relations with Israel, we shall soon unveil a statue to Yoni Netanyahu at the exact spot he was killed at Entebbe Airport. Yoni was the big brother of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. God bless Uganda and Israel.”

Lt. Col. Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu. (Photo by GPO via Getty Images)

The commemoration of the heroic sacrifice of Yoni Netanyahu on Ugandan soil shows how much the relationship between Uganda and Israel has shifted in the past five decades.

Back then, President Idi Amin helped the terrorists hold the hostages at Entebbe Airport. A group of Arab and German terrorists hijacked an Air France plane carrying 248 passengers and diverted it to Entebbe Airport, where the terrorists received a warm welcome from Amin and a deployment of more than 100 soldiers to help guard the hostages. The terrorists separated the Jewish and Israeli hostages from the remaining passengers, whom they allowed to leave.

Israel conducted a surprise raid called “Operation Thunderbolt,” led by Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, during which all seven terrorists and 20 to 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed. Netanyahu was the only Israeli from the operation who died, and all the hostages were safely released. Amin denounced the raid as a breach of Ugandan sovereignty, but his successors acknowledged Israel’s right to conduct the operation. The operation was later renamed “Operation Yonatan” in his honor.

An official from Israel’s Finance Ministry, Ze’ev Elkin, said that Israel would not participate in funding Gaza’s reconstruction, finding the notion absurd.

“We will not fund the Board of Peace; there is no reason to,” he told a local radio station in Israel. “We were attacked. There is no reason for us to pay for the reconstruction,” he added, implying that Israel should not have to pay for a war that it did not ask for.

According to a separate news report, President Donald Trump allowed Israel off the hook for funding the efforts to ease pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid anger in Israel over joining the Board of Peace and serving alongside countries that are hostile to Israel, such as Turkey and Qatar. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have each pledged $1 billion.

According to U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s peace plan will birth a “renaissance” in Gaza. He said in an interview that the $17 billion raised so far “is going to jump-start us. We’re going to have housing and mass transportation, and we’re going to be able to clear and demolish all the areas there and get it ready for a renaissance.”

Meanwhile, in his address at the inaugural meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace on Thursday in Washington, D.C., Trump expressed his confidence that Hamas will voluntarily disarm, despite the repeated rejections of such calls from Hamas senior officials such as Khaled Mashaal. Trump said that if Hamas doesn’t disarm, it will be “very harshly met.”

According to officials on the Board of Peace, reconstruction is directly tied to demilitarization of the Strip. Reconstruction will not begin until Hamas has disarmed — or has been forcibly disarmed — so that the group will never again threaten Israel.

The Olympic Committee of Israel (OCI) banned its first-ever bobsleigh team from continuing on to the next round of the competition at the Winter Olympic Games after one of its athletes faked illness. According to the rules, an athlete can withdraw due to illness or injury and request a substitute. Uri Zisman, the primary athlete, feigned illness and obtained a medical note confirming he was unwell so alternate Ward Fawarseh could compete in his place, but he confessed his wrongdoing to the delegation’s management, saying he was in fact healthy and capable of competing.

The OCI denounced the athlete’s misconduct and banned the team from continuing to compete. The committee also issued a statement saying, “The Israeli delegation received information that members of the Israeli bobsleigh team sought to replace one of the participants in an inappropriate manner, violating the standards expected of Olympic athletes and the core Olympic values. As a result, the decision was made not to allow the bobsleigh team to participate in tomorrow’s competition.”

AJ Edelman, left, is embraced by his copilot Ward Fawarseh after finishing last at the Winter Olympics last Tuesday. (From Edelman’s X account)

“The decision to suspend the team was made with the agreement of the athletes themselves,” the statement added. “The Israel Olympic Committee takes any deviation from the principles of fair play seriously and will not accept behavior that is unbecoming of Olympic standards. We strongly condemn such actions in every way.”

This marks the anticlimactic end to the excitement of Israel’s first bobsleigh team competing in the Olympics, when a two-man team finished in last place last week. The team had planned to compete in the four-man race, but will now return to Israel to undergo a thorough investigation. The OCI said it would ensure that all protocols are followed moving forward.

The OCI’s swift response to withdraw the team is a testament to Israel’s high ethical standards.

Iran has reportedly finalized a confidential €500 million weapons agreement with Moscow to purchase advanced shoulder-launched “Verba” air defense systems, in what appears to be an effort to restore capabilities degraded during last year’s conflict with Israel.

Under the arrangement, Iran is set to receive approximately 500 launch units and 2,500 missiles in phased deliveries extending through 2029. The portable systems are designed to engage drones, helicopters, low-flying jets, and certain cruise missiles, potentially complicating aerial operations conducted at lower altitudes.

The reported deal comes amid heightened pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump over Tehran’s nuclear program and broader regional activity. Although the systems are unlikely to significantly alter the strategic balance in a large-scale war, they may increase tactical risks for aircraft operating near Iranian airspace and underscore expanding defense cooperation between Tehran and Moscow.

A senior U.S. official told Axios Sunday morning that the United States will hold another round of talks on Friday if Iran submits a detailed proposal in the next 48 hours. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that he finished writing a proposal and submitted it to his superiors for review. The U.S. is holding firm to its stance of zero nuclear enrichment but is willing to accept “token” enrichment — what that means has yet to be defined — as long as every path to a nuclear bomb is sealed off.

This may represent the last chance for negotiations to work.

Last week, U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner told Araghchi to submit a proposal that includes only the token enrichment and ensuring that there is no path to a nuclear bomb. Araghchi said on Friday in an interview that he would finish the proposal this weekend and submit it to Witkoff and Kushner as soon as it was reviewed by his political leadership.

A senior U.S. official said that if a proposal is submitted, the U.S. and Iran will meet for another round of talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, Feb. 27, adding that both sides might agree to an interim deal while working out a more permanent solution. Witkoff and Kushner have counseled President Donald Trump to hold off on strikes and give diplomacy yet another chance.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) complained to Axios in an interview about Trump’s advisers who are counseling patience, saying that while he understands the reason for giving diplomacy a chance, the time for that has run out.

“I understand concerns about major military operations in the Middle East given past entanglements,” he said. “However, the voices who counsel against getting entangled seem to ignore the consequences of letting evil go unchecked.”

However, sources close to the president say that despite the ongoing back-and-forth between the U.S. and Iran and the on-again, off-again impending military operation, Trump may order a strike at any time.

A man in his early 20s was shot and killed early Sunday after allegedly breaching the secure perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in what authorities are investigating as a suspected assassination attempt.

According to the United States Secret Service, the incident occurred when the suspect made an unauthorized entry onto the property. He was observed near the north gate carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a gas can filled with gas.

During the confrontation with U.S. Secret Service agents and a deputy from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect was ordered to drop the shotgun but then reportedly raised the shotgun into a firing position. Agents opened fire, and the individual was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shotgun and gas scan that were used in the assassination attempt

His identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

No Secret Service or Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office personnel were injured.

Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida

Historically, four United States presidents have been assassinated while in office:

Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy.

If formally designated as an assassination attempt, this would mark the third known attempt targeting President Trump in recent years, raising serious concerns about escalating political violence in the United States.

The FBI is the lead investigative agency. The Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office are assisting in the investigation, including reviewing the suspect’s background, motive, and the use of force. In accordance with agency policy, the involved agents have been placed on routine administrative leave.

This is a developing story. Updates will follow.

A newly opened bakery in north London was vandalized after a pro-Palestinian protest outside the business turned hostile. The incident took place at Gail’s Bakery, a popular chain with roughly 170 locations across the United Kingdom. Protesters gathered outside the bakery with signs reading “Boycott Israel For Genocide And War Crimes in Gaza” and accusing the business of being “funded by investors in Israeli tech.” Then, later, red paint was splattered on the bakery’s signage and windows, and messages targeting the business were left at the scene.

The bakery was founded in the 1990s by a pair of Israeli bakers but has since grown into a widely recognized British business. The bakery has no formal ties to any government outside the UK and expressed concern for the safety of its staff and customers, saying the focus right now is on cooperating with police and ensuring support for employees. Police said no arrests had been made yet, but that officers were reviewing video evidence in an attempt to identify those responsible for the damage.

The European Jewish Congress called the incident “deeply concerning,” saying that targeting local businesses because of perceived Jewish or Israeli associations has no place in British society. British politicians, including a member of the Labour Party, joined and denounced the actions as antisemitic.

The U.S. Army has announced that Staff Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a World War II veteran who helped save hundreds of Jewish American soldiers from Nazi persecution, will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration.

Edmonds, who was born and raised in South Knoxville, Tennessee, served with the 352nd Infantry Regiment, 88th Division in Europe. In December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, he and his unit were overrun by German forces and taken prisoner. Edmonds and other captured soldiers were marched to a German prisoner-of-war camp.

At the camp, German guards ordered all Jewish American soldiers to step forward for separation and likely deportation to concentration camps. At great personal risk, Edmonds, then the senior American officer present, ordered all 1,275 captured U.S. soldiers to stand together, refusing to single out Jews. When a German officer demanded that “the Jews” be handed over, Edmonds said:
“We are all Jews here.”

Edmonds ensured that none of the Jewish American soldiers under his command were identified or separated from the rest of the unit. Many of those individuals later credited Edmonds with saving their lives. His courage has been remembered by survivors and descendants as an act of bravery. Edmonds and his men endured the remainder of the war in the POW camp and were eventually liberated.

In recent years, advocates, including descendants of those he saved and historical organizations, including Yad-Vashem, pushed for Edmonds to receive the Medal of Honor. These efforts finally resulted in the Department of Defense’s decision to award him the highest possible honor. The award ceremonywill take place later this year, with government officials and Jewish community representatives scheduled to attend.

The Toldos Aharon community in Meah She’arim marked an unusual week of celebration after 83 engagements were announced within just a few days. Almost every family in the neighborhood celebrated a simcha this week, spreading joy in the streets in Yerushalayim.

The large number of engagements in such a short period stood out even in a community accustomed to frequent family events, drawing attention across Yerushalayim’s chassidic neighborhoods. This chassidus does not publicly announce engagements until Rosh Chodesh Adar, so a full winter’s worth of undercover arrangements between families were released at once, prompting this flood of engagements.

All 83 engagements were listed in the local newspapers and flyers, and were celebrated with the presence of the Toldos Ahron Rebbe, who enacted this policy a few years ago to allow the talmidim to be able to focus on learning during the winter months.

Former hostage Segev Kalfon fulfilled a powerful personal vow in the heart of New York City, declaring Shema Yisrael before what organizers described as the largest gathering of Jewish teens in the world.

An estimated 7,000 teenagers from 60 countries packed Times Square, transforming the crossroads of the world into a sea of Jewish pride, unity, and faith. Giant screens flashed messages of solidarity as Israeli flags and banners waved beneath the bright lights of Manhattan.

Kalfon took the stage and shared an emotional revelation that stunned the crowd.

“I was planning to say Shema Yisrael on the stage of the show of Hamas,” he said. “But the show of Hamas was cancelled, so I’m saying Shema to all of the world.”

He was referring to the staged humiliation ceremonies in Gaza where Hamas paraded hostages onto platforms before transferring them to the Red Cross and ultimately back to Israel in carefully choreographed propaganda spectacles.

TOPSHOT – CORRECTION / Hamas fighters escort Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi on a stage before handing him over to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on February 8, 2025. Hamas militants handed over three Israeli hostages on February 8, as part of the fifth exchange under a fragile Gaza ceasefire, with 183 prisoners held by Israel due to be released later in the day. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP) / “The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by Eyad BABA has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Eli Sharabi] instead of [Or Levy]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require.” (Photo by EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images)

Instead of risking proclaiming his faith under terror, Kalfon declared it freely in front of thousands, his voice rising above Times Square as teens from across the globe joined him in unison. Many were seen wiping away tears as the ancient words echoed between skyscrapers.

The moment symbolized a dramatic reversal of fate. What was meant to be a stage of humiliation became a stage of pride. What was designed as propaganda became a proclamation of faith.

From captivity to the crossroads of the world, Kalfon’s declaration sent a message far beyond New York: the Jewish people are still here, still united, and still declaring Shema Yisrael to the world.

Media reports from Friday say that President Donald Trump is considering limited strikes on Iran to force it to back down from its inflexible stance regarding its their nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile programs. Trump is also reportedly reviewing an option to take out Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; his son and potential successor, Mojtaba Khamenei; and top Islamic clerics.

Regime change is reportedly on the table, and the military campaign may begin soon, within the next few days, according to the reports.

Both Israeli and American officials believe a strike is more likely than a deal because Iran has signaled that it will not back down from its hardline position on nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile expansion, the gap between the two countries on what constitutes acceptable concessions is unbridgeable and the United States has perhaps indicated its intentions by amassing the largest number of military assets in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

What’s more, many officials in the Trump administration don’t trust Iran to honestly stick to a deal.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference Friday, Trump asserted that Iran had killed 32,000 people over a short period of time, alluding to the brutal January crackdown on protesters when the regime killed thousands — possibly tens of thousands — of protesters, with some reports putting the death toll at upwards of 36,000.

“It is a very, very sad situation,” the president said. “They were going to hang … some by crane. They lift them up with a tall crane, and they play them around the square. They were going to hang 837 people … I feel very badly for the people of Iran. They’ve lived in hell.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, speaking to Fox News on Friday, said the Iranian government would do well to take Trump at his word, recalling the strikes in June.

If Iranian government officials “don’t believe President Trump will do what he says in a military action, then they’re not real smart,” he said. “And they certainly have a short memory. They don’t remember what happened to them last summer.”

He said that the only deal is one in which Iran “gets rid of its nuclear enrichment, they don’t have any more aspirations for nuclear weapons, they quit killing their citizens and they start to lower the inventory of ballistic missiles, and especially the range.”

“If they don’t do that, Trump has said, there is no deal,” he said.

A U.S. official, speaking to Axios on Friday, said that Trump is still willing to consider a deal in which Iran meaningfully gives up enrichment.

“President Trump will be ready to accept a deal that would be substantive and that he can sell politically at home,” the official said. “If the Iranians want to prevent an attack, they should give us an offer we can’t refuse. The Iranians keep missing the window. If they play games, there won’t be a lot of patience.”

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) weighed in, saying that the ayatollah faces the same choice former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro faced: Leave, or get taken out, one way or another.

But on Saturday, Iran continued to strike a defiant tone.

“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads … but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that a new proposal for a nuclear deal will be forthcoming in the next couple of days.

He said in an interview, “What we are now talking about is how to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program, including enrichment, is peaceful and would remain peaceful forever.”

BRISBANE, Australia — A frightening terrorist hate crime unfolded at Brisbane’s largest synagogue when a driver deliberately rammed a truck into the security gates as hundreds of members gathered for Shabbat prayers.

Authorities said a 32 year old Sunnybank man drove directly at the entrance in what investigators are treating as an antisemitic attack. Surveillance footage shows the vehicle reversing before accelerating again in an apparent attempt to breach the secured perimeter.

The impact caused significant damage to the front gates. Reinforced bollards prevented the gate from collapsing inward, potentially stopping it from falling directly onto a synagogue member who was nearby at the time.

It remains unclear what might have happened had the protective bollards not been installed. With hundreds of worshippers inside praying, officials acknowledged the outcome could have been far worse.

The suspect fled but was later stopped after police deployed tyre spikes near the Queensland Holocaust Museum in Brisbane. He was taken into custody and charged with hate related offenses.

The attack came one day after Islamists firebombed another synagogue in Australia and ABC News somehow referred to the firebombed synagogue as a “mosque,” intensifying alarm within the country’s Jewish community.

It also follows the deadly Chanukah shooting near Bondi Beach in Sydney, where six people were killed in what authorities described as an Islamist terror attack carried out by a father and son team. While that incident was not at a Jewish institution, it heightened fears about extremist violence and public safety nationwide.

Bondi Beach shooting at Hanukkah celebration. December 14th, 2025. (Photo by Edwina Pickles / Sydney Morning Herald via Getty Images)

For many Australian Jews, the violence carries a painful historical weight. Australia was long viewed as a safe haven for Holocaust survivors and their descendants, a country far removed from the antisemitic terror that scarred Europe.

Now, some community members say they are second guessing that sense of security and even contemplating whether their future remains in Australia.

Israelli President Isaac Herzog (C) and his wife Michal (2nd R) are escorted by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns (L) as they lay a wreath for the victims of the December 14, 2025 gun attack at the Bondi Pavilion, in Sydney on February 9, 2026. Herzog said February 9 people of all faiths will “overcome this evil” as he paid respect to victims of a shooting that killed 15 people celebrating a Jewish festival on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP via Getty Images)

Jewish leaders are calling for urgent security reinforcements and stronger enforcement against hate crimes, warning that repeated attacks on synagogues are not only acts of vandalism but direct threats to Jewish life in a country once considered among the safest in the world.

Officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are reportedly taking a direct leadership role in running Hezbollah’s military operations in Lebanon and preparing the group for possible conflict with Israel and the United States, according to a Saudi-based report citing sources close to the Lebanese militia.

The report says IRGC officers have arrived in Lebanon from Iran and are now helping to rebuild Hezbollah’s military capabilities, which were significantly weakened during more than a year of heavy fighting with Israel that ended with a truce in late 2024. These officers are described as personally briefing Hezbollah fighters and meeting with the group’s missile units in the Bekaa Valley, a strategic area near the Syrian border.

The increased involvement by the IRGC reflects Iran’s broader strategy to prepare for a potential war if the United States were to attack. Iran is also applying pressure on Hezbollah to join any conflict on the side of Tehran, a dynamic that Israeli security officials are monitoring closely.

Hezbollah has denied disarmament plans and continues to reject efforts by the Lebanese government, insisting it will not give up its weapons. The group’s leadership has also warned that any attack on Iran could trigger a wider regional war and that they will remain involved. The IDF said it is preparing contingency plans for a range of scenarios, including expanded hostilities with Hezbollah if the group engages directly in a future conflict.

President Donald Trump announced plans to raise the U.S. global tariff rate to 15 percent on all imports after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated key parts of his earlier tariff program this week, forcing the government to refund billions of dollars in duties already collected.

The Supreme Court ruled that Trump exceeded his authority by imposing broad tariffs on imports without clear approval from Congress, saying that such sweeping action must be authorized. This decision means that the government will have to return significant amounts of money to companies that have already paid the invalid tariffs, a refund process that will cost American taxpayers billions.

President Donald Trump announces tariffs on auto imports in the Oval Office, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

In response, Trump said he plans to implement a temporary global tariff of 15 percent instead of the current 10 percent, which is the maximum level allowed within his authority, in an effort to maintain leverage and protect U.S. industries. He called the Supreme Court’s ruling “unjust” and framed the move as a way to continue pushing back against what he says is unfair trade.

Trade experts say a 15 percent tariff applied across a wide range of products will lead to even higher prices on imported goods for American consumers and will cause retaliation from trading partners. By raising the rate, Trump is hoping to signal that his trade policy will continue despite the setback.

New York City and the surrounding Tri-State area are preparing for a significant nor’easter this weekend that forecasters say could bring heavy snowfall, strong winds, and dangerous travel conditions from late Sunday into Monday.

Meteorologists are forecasting steady snow beginning Sunday afternoon that will intensify overnight. The National Weather Service has issued blizzard warnings for New York City, Long Island, Connecticut, and parts of New Jersey — a designation that reflects the risk of sustained winds, blowing snow, and reduced visibility rather than just total accumulation. According to the latest forecasts, snow could fall at rates of 1–2 inches an hour during the height of the storm, with many areas in and around the city likely to see 12+ inches of snow, with some forecasts even predicting totals in the 20’s.

Strong winds are expected to accompany the snowfall, with gusts potentially exceeding 40–50 mph in some areas, creating whiteout conditions and drifting snow that could make roads impassable and slow plows. Forecasters also warn that coastal flooding may occur around shorelines. Airlines have already begun issuing advisories, and snow removal crews are staging equipment in anticipation of the worst of the storm. Officials are urging residents to avoid non-essential travel once snow becomes heavy, particularly Sunday night into Monday morning, when conditions are expected to be at their most severe.

A fiery face to face debate in Israel between former Arkansas governor and U.S. ambassador nominee Mike Huckabee and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson erupted after Huckabee directly confronted Carlson over what he called a “reckless and false” claim that the IDF killed a young Palestinian boy.

During the exchange, Huckabee accused Carlson of platforming Anthony Aguilar and amplifying an allegation that Israeli forces deliberately murdered a child. Huckabee stated that the story had already been challenged and contradicted by available evidence, and he pressed Carlson on why he aired the accusation without further verification.

“You put it out there as fact,” Huckabee said, arguing that repeating unverified claims about the IDF fuels anti Israel sentiment globally.

According to those in attendance, when presented with counter evidence disputing the narrative, Carlson became visibly agitated and pushed back forcefully, questioning the sourcing and dismissing the rebuttal. The moment quickly became the focal point of the debate.

FULL DEBATE BELOW:

The Mike Huckabee interview, and the truth about America’s deeply unhealthy relationship with Israel.

(0:00) Why We Were Interrogated in Israel
(25:38) Why Did Huckabee Meet With American Traitor Jonathan Pollard?
(34:26) Has Huckabee Advocated to Extradite Sex Offenders Who… pic.twitter.com/wPoF4GfSpt

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 20, 2026

Critics of Carlson argue that the segment exposed what they describe as a pattern of sensational claims about Israel without adequate fact checking. Supporters of Huckabee said the confrontation highlighted the importance of verifying battlefield allegations before broadcasting them to millions.

Carlson has denied knowingly spreading false information and has framed his coverage as questioning official narratives rather than attacking Israel. However, the debate intensified scrutiny over his decision to rely heavily on Aguilar’s account.

Some critics have even speculated about Carlson’s motives, alleging that foreign interests such as Qatar seek to influence Western discourse about Israel. There is no public evidence confirming that Carlson has received funding from the Qatari government, and he has not publicly acknowledged any such arrangement.

An Illinois congresswoman who is running for U.S. Senate said during a debate Thursday night that she believed Israel committed a genocide in Gaza, in the latest sign of a sea change in Democratic sentiment about Israel.

“It may not have started off being like that, but I believe that is what it turned into,” said Rep. Robin Kelly, who is running to replace the retiring Sen. Dick Durbin. 

Following the debate, Kelly took to X to hammer the point that neither Lieutenant Gov. Juliana Stratton nor Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi were willing to match her accusation.

“Every candidate on stage tonight had the opportunity to condemn genocide in Gaza,” she wrote. “I’m the only one who did.”

The debate came a month after Scott Wiener, the Jewish politician running to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in California, drew fire after initially declining to answer a debate question about whether Israel committed genocide in Gaza, then said he had decided it had. 

It also came just a year after Kelly received a donation from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby — then adopted more critical stances on Israel since declaring her Senate candidacy last May.

The three candidates’ responses to the question about Gaza underscored just how present Israel remains in electoral politics months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire sent the two-year-old Israel-Hamas war into a new era. During the war, Democratic voters’ approval of Israel plummeted to the single digits, according to some polls, and an array of politicians who had never before been vocal critics of Israel adopted harshly critical stances. 

Kelly has traveled to Israel multiple times on congressional delegations and sought to curry support within the Chicago Jewish community in the past. Now, as she carves out a position among the three frontrunners in the Senate race as the one most critical of Israel, her success in the primary could be a measure of how heavily Democratic voters are weighing the issue. 

None of the candidates offered a straightforwardly pro-Israel view on the debate floor. Asked whether she would support Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s resolution to recognize “the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Stratton said that “the devastation and suffering that we have seen is terrible” and that “we must do everything we can” to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans. 

Krishnamoorthi said he is concerned that people are “extremely divided” in determining “what exactly happened.”

“My concern is this: division getting in the way of progress right now in this fragile ceasefire,” he said. “If that gets in the way of progress, then we’re going to go back to war. And we can’t let that happen.”

Kelly added that she had not actually read Tlaib’s resolution. “But as I just said, I think it was genocide,” she said.

Kelly first took office in 2013. Since announcing her Senate run last year, she has adopted harsher stances on Israel.

In August, she said she would have voted in favor of a pair of Bernie Sanders-led resolutions in the Senate that would block certain arms sales to Israel. And in the House, Kelly cosponsored the Block the Bombs Act that would withhold the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel.

“Israelis and Palestinians must work to secure a path forward where both peoples can live in peace, safety and security,” Kelly said in a statement at the time regarding Sanders’ resolutions. “I have supported Israel, but in this moment, I cannot in good conscience defend starving young children and prolonging the suffering of innocent families. Now is the time for moral leadership in the U.S. Senate.”

At a candidates’ forum in October, several candidates referred to Israel’s campaign in Gaza as a “genocide,” the Daily Northwestern reported. 

Kelly was not among them. But she pledged during the forum that she would not accept funds from AIPAC. That was a new position for Kelly, who accepted contributions from AIPAC’s PAC in March and April 2025, according to FEC filings. She was endorsed by the liberal pro-Israel group J Street in her 2024 reelection campaign.

At the forum, Stratton was the only candidate who recognized the upcoming two-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Stratton and Krishnamoorthi did not swear off AIPAC contributions.

The Democratic primary, set for March 17, is seen as a three-person race among Kelly, Stratton and Krishnamoorthi. Kelly has garnered endorsements from a number of politicians including Sens. Cory Booker and Chris Murphy. Stratton’s endorsements include Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, while Krishnamoorthi has been endorsed by Bill Daley, who was Obama’s White House chief of staff, and a number of state and U.S. representatives.

Unlike a handful of House elections in the state, this race has not seen any reported spending by pro-Israel groups including AIPAC or its super PAC, the United Democracy Project. Jewish Insider reported last year that votes from Chicagoland’s sizable Jewish community are “up for grabs” because no candidate has particularly deep ties to the community.

Kelly has previously traveled to Israel as a member of Congress. In 2016, Kelly met with leaders from Chicago’s Jewish United Fund and Jewish Community Relations Council to discuss her trip, which was her second to Israel. “She backs a two-state solution and supports Israel’s ongoing security needs,” the JUF wrote after the meeting.

Former hostages Nimrod Cohen and Matan Angrest, both veterans of the IDF’s 7th Armored Brigade, took part today in a ceremony marking the completion of training for new Armored Corps recruits.

The soldiers concluded a ceremonial march to Yad Lashiryon in Latrun—the Armored Corps’ official memorial and museum—where they were presented with the corps’ distinctive black beret, symbolizing their entry into operational service.

During the ceremony, Cohen and Angrest joined Chief Armored Officer Brig. Gen. Ohad Maor in presenting certificates of excellence to standout soldiers who demonstrated exceptional performance throughout their training.

Brig. Gen. Maor emphasized the symbolic weight of the moment, highlighting the IDF’s core value of mutual responsibility. He expressed deep emotion at the presence of Cohen and Angrest, saying their return represented a powerful reminder that the IDF stands firmly by its soldiers.

Cohen and Angrest were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, after their tanks were overrun during the attack on southern Israel. Several members of their crews were killed, and their bodies were taken into Gaza. Both former hostages have since expressed their determination to one day return to military service.

The Council for a Secure America commissioned a YouGov survey in Syria that shows that attitudes in the country toward Israel are warming since Mohammed al-Sharaah took the reins of government following the fall of the Assad regime.

The poll breaks down attitudes toward Israel as follows:

• Is peace with Israel likely? 59 percent said yes; 14 percent said no.
• Do you support a security arrangement with Israel? 64 percent yes, 8 percent no.
• Do you support normalization with Israel once the Gaza issue is resolved? 47 percent yes, 13 percent no.

The rejection of Hezbollah was just as surprisingly overwhelming. Seventy percent viewed Hezbollah’s involvement with Israel as negative and 52 percent said Hezbollah damages Syria’s security, while only 11 percent said Hezbollah has a positive impact.

Hezbollah did not fare much better in Lebanon in a YouGov poll conducted last month. While only 40 percent said peace with Israel is likely and only 25 percent supported normalization with Israel, 63 percent want to see Hezbollah disarmed, with only 9 percent opposing.

Jennifer Sutton, executive director of the Council for a Secure America, said in an interview, “Council for a Secure America polls demonstrate that Syrian and Lebanese public opinion continues to gravitate away from Hezbollah.”

“While Israeli normalization is not yet on the horizon, we are seeing significant shifts in Syria, with a majority believing that eventual peace with Israel is possible,” she added. These shifts “provide an opportunity for the U.S. to reinforce traditional geopolitical partners, weaken proxy forces, promote peace and stability, and discourage external entities from destabilizing the region.”

In a major setback for the administration, the United States Supreme Court on Thursday struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policy in a 6–3 decision.

The ruling blocks the implementation of the tariffs, dealing a significant blow to what the administration had framed as a key economic and trade strategy.

In a sharply worded 63 page dissent, Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued the president had broader authority in matters of trade and national economic security. Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, joined the Court’s liberal wing in the majority opinion.

The decision is expected to have significant financial implications, with billions of dollars in projected tariff revenue now off the table.

The White House has not yet announced whether it will pursue alternative trade measures following the ruling.

🔗 SEE ALL JBN LINKS: https://link.me/jbn

Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism announced Thursday that it is sending aid to Jews in Ukraine facing the freezing winter cold amid lengthy power outages, in coordination with Jewish philanthropic groups.

The ministry, along with Mosaic United and other philanthropies, aims to deliver over $1 million in aid as part of its commitment to help Jewish communities around the world facing various hardships. The aid will provide hotel stays and other accommodations that maintain electricity during power blackouts so that Jews can stay warm during the harsh Ukrainian winter.

“This assistance includes stays in hotels and guesthouses with continuous electricity and heating, as well as hot meals, focusing on cities experiencing extended power cuts,” the ministry said.

Chabad, the Jewish Agency and the Federations are coordinating to distribute the aid on the ground wherever it is needed.

Officials from the ministry expressed their support for Ukrainian Jews and Israel’s desire to help.

“The Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has mobilized for this mission to help Jewish communities find warm shelter until the end of winter,” said the ministry’s director-general, Avi Cohen Scali. “I am pleased that we have been granted the privilege to do this.”

“The State of Israel feels a commitment toward every Jew in the world, especially in times of emergency and crisis,” said Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli. “Mutual responsibility is our guiding light. Therefore, [Israel] is assisting Jewish organizations in getting through the winter more comfortably, with hot meals, hot water and basic necessities. This is the least we can do for our Jewish brothers, and we will continue to stand by them.”

The United Nations has committed a fresh moral outrage, electing Iran as vice chair of the U.N. Charter Committee, just one month after Iran committed one of the worst crimes against humanity in history. Over a period of two days, on Jan. 8 and 9, Iran massacred thousands of its own people, with reports of up to 36,000 killed. In addition, Iran’s authoritarian regime has been a repeat offender in the human rights abuses arena for decades.

The job of the U.N. Charter Committee is to “examine suggestions and proposals regarding the Charter and the strengthening of the role of the United Nations with regard to the maintenance and consolidation of international peace and security, the development of cooperation among all nations and the promotion of the rules of international law.”

If this doesn’t make people realize the U.N. is a joke, nothing will.

The announcement drew fury from Israel and the U.S. Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, took to X to issue a blistering condemnation.

“Iran was elected today as Vice-Chair of the UN Charter Committee, the body that is meant to uphold the principles of the UN Charter,” he wrote. “A regime that systematically violates the most basic principles of the UN cannot sit in a position that is focused on preserving those very principles. This is a moral absurdity, and the UN must stop legitimizing those who act against the goals of this institution.”

Iran was elected today as Vice-Chair of the UN Charter Committee, the body that is meant to uphold the principles of the UN Charter.

A regime that systematically violates the most basic principles of the UN cannot sit in a position that is focused on preserving those very… pic.twitter.com/5N2WReuo62

— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) February 18, 2026

Israel’s representative to the committee also reacted, calling the Iranian regime “the world’s leading state sponsor and the largest proliferator of terrorism.”

He also said that Israel washes its hands of the whole affair.

“The State of Israel wishes to disassociate itself from any consensus-based action regarding the composition of the bureau and the election of the officers of the special committee on the Charter,” he said.

“For decades the Iranian regime has openly called for the annihilation of the State of Israel, a blatant violation of the U.N. Charter,” he added. “At the same time, it advances its nuclear and ballistic missiles program. It is a clear, blatant violation of the obligation under the UN charter and international law, posing a grave and imminent threat to regional and global peace and security.”

He raised the specter of Iran’s recent crimes against its own people, saying that Iran is “a state that systematically violates the charter and international law, undermines international peace and security, and massacres its own civilians cannot credibly serve on the bureau of a committee tasked with strengthening the very charter of the United Nations.”

“The fact that this decision is allowed to be passed without objection, or even without calling for a vote, speaks volumes,” he concluded.

Dorothy Patton, the American representative to the committee, also blasted the decision.

“The bureau selection further solidifies our longstanding concern that this committee continues to be a forum for politicized accusations, which we firmly reject, rather than serious, practical discussion,” she said.

A court hearing on Wednesday established that the six people who broke into a factory belonging to Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems near Bristol, England, will face retrial after having been acquitted of aggravated burglary, while three were acquitted of violent disorder, drawing outrage from the Jewish community.

The names of the defendants are Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, Fatema Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin.

While the six were acquitted of some charges, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charges of criminal damages and violent disorder for the three who were charged but not acquitted. The retrial will address these remaining charges.

The group belongs to Palestine Action, which has been proscribed as a terrorist group by the United Kingdom. The U.K. High Court ruled last week against the ban. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood noted the concern this elicited from Jewish groups and vowed to appeal the ban.

Activist Greta Thunberg joins a Palestine Action protest on Dec. 23, 2025, in London, England. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images)

Palestine Action is an anti-Israel group that organizes protests against Israel-affiliated institutions, especially those related to arms and arms sales to Israel. The group engages in civil disobedience, and its members often face arrest. The well-known anti-Israel activist Greta Thunberg was arrested in December while participating in a Palestine Action event.

All the defendants but one presented evidence at trial, saying that they broke into the building with sledgehammers, but had not “in any circumstances intended to injure security staff” with the hammers. Prosecutors accused the group of swinging sledgehammers at the security guards, swearing at them, and whipping them. The defense attorney said that the defendants were surprised to encounter the guards and were “completely out of their depth.”

The six activists participated in a hunger strike while in prison.

The jury at Woolwich Crown Court deliberated for more than 36 hours but failed to reach a verdict on the other charges, which included a charge of criminal damage against all six and a charge of violent disorder against the three who were not among those found not guilty of that charge.

One of the six was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent after an alleged assault on a security guard, but the jury failed to reach a verdict in this case as well. The Crown Prosecution Service may request a second trial to resolve the remaining charges.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews reacted with dismay to the not-guilty verdicts.

The group issued a statement saying, “We are concerned by the troubling verdicts acquitting members of Palestine Action, an organisation that has been proscribed as a terrorist group, whose activities have included targeting businesses linked to the Jewish community in London and Manchester.”

The group expressed concern about the precedent set by “the perverse justifications being used as a shield for criminality” and urged a retrial for the remaining charges, especially in light of the severe injuries sustained by the security guard who had been attacked with a sledgehammer.

It remains unclear whether the charge for the sledgehammer attack is part of the retrial.

Police in Australia shut down a central Canberra bar and declared it a crime scene after seizing posters depicting Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other political figures in Nazi uniforms, following complaints about the display.

The posters were part of an art exhibit inside the venue. After receiving complaints, police entered the bar, removed the images, and temporarily closed the premises while the site was treated as a crime scene. No arrests were reported at the time.

The bar’s owner said the images were intended as political satire and part of an artistic exhibition criticizing world leaders, not to promote Nazi ideology. The owner said the display was meant to provoke discussion through controversial imagery and was not meant to offend Holocaust survivors or the Jewish community. Local Jewish leaders disagreed and said the images were offensive and trivialized Nazi crimes, and welcomed the police response. Police said the material was taken for examination and that the investigation is ongoing. Officials have not yet said whether charges will be filed or when the bar will be allowed to reopen.

New York City attorney Jack Lester, along with five New York City Council members and 28 citizens, is suing for information regarding the policies that Mayor Zohran Mamdani scrapped as his first act as mayor on his first day in office, including repealing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and an Israel boycott ban, according to a report by JNS.

Lester said he filed a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain records, such as emails related to these actions, to which the mayor’s office is required by law to respond within five days and release within 20 business days. The mayor’s office denied the request, saying that Lester has to file with the law department. Lester filed an appeal, which was again denied.

Lester said that the mayor revoked laws that former Mayor Eric Adams passed to protect the Jewish community “in a vacuum without any rationale, studies or impact statements.”

Inna Vernikov, right, one of the New York City Council members who signed onto the lawsuit, poses with famous Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, center. (From her X account)

“We’d like to know what public policies will result, what impacts on the purchase of Israeli bonds there will be, educational policies and public safety policies,” he added. “There is a broad area of impacts that have been left without any sort of comment.”

“What exactly are his objectives?” Lester asked.

While the five Council members — Joann Ariola, David Carr, Frank Morano, Inna Vernikov and Vickie Paladino — are all Republicans, the citizens represent a wide spectrum of political views and various professions, such as lawyers, therapists, journalists and people who work in the world of finance.

Jeffrey Weisenfeld, who has worked in city and state governments under both Democratic and Republican administrations, took a stab at guessing Mamdani’s motive: sending a message of support to anti-Zionists.

The mayor’s “bifurcation of Jews from Israel is a very dangerous thing,” he said in an interview with JNS. “For most of us, Judaism is both the covenant and the land. It’s not for him to define Judaism, just as we don’t define Islam.”

Weisenfeld believes that Mamdani has something to hide; otherwise, he would have promptly complied with the FOIL request.

“I’m pleased it’s getting to a formalized lawsuit that highlights protections that he’s not providing for Jews,” he said.

Lester said he took the case pro bono, out of disgust for Mamdani’s first actions as mayor.

“I’m familiar with his background and statements and public career,” he said. “He falls on the extreme side of this issue. The fact that he did it as his first act as mayor was a slap in the face to the entire Jewish community.”

Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace summit Thursday, President Donald Trump said that a nuclear deal with Iran was imminent — or not.

“We may have to take it a step further, or we may not,” Trump said. “Maybe we’re gonna make a deal. You’re gonna be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”

Despite what he described as productive talks, the president emphasized the difficulty of reaching a deal with Iran and warned of tough consequences for the authoritarian regime if it failed to come through.

It’s “not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran,” he said. “We have to make a meaningful deal. Otherwise, bad things happen.”

He also said that the heavy strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June, deploying the unique B-52 bombers, helped bring about the October ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Meanwhile, the United States has heavily increased its military presence in the region, sending the naval aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to the Middle East, with a second carrier strike group now on the way led by the USS Gerald R. Ford. The U.S. has also sent scores of F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, in reportedly the greatest show of air power since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

A U.S. Marine F-35B Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter) flies during the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Air Show. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

Iran’s foreign ministry touted the talks as a success in an X post that published remarks by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“Compared to the previous round, this session involved fully serious discussions and was conducted in a more constructive atmosphere,” Araghchi was reported as saying.

“Various ideas were put forward and thoroughly examined,” he continued. “Ultimately, we were able to reach a general understanding on a set of guiding principles that will serve as the basis for moving forward and entering into the drafting of a potential agreement.”

Araghchi warned that the process will take time.

“This does not mean that we can reach an agreement quickly, but at least the process has begun,” he said. “We hope to conclude it as soon as possible and are prepared to devote sufficient time to it. However, when it comes to drafting the text, the work becomes more detailed and complex.”

Nevertheless, he expressed optimism about the path forward.

“Good progress was made compared to the previous meeting, and we now have a clearer and, in my view, positive path ahead,” he said.

Some observers have noted that Iran is using the negotiations as a delaying tactic to ward off a military strike, but ultimately, the gap between the two sides is too wide to bridge, and a military strike appears increasingly likely.

Trump spoke at a press conference later in the day in Georgia and, when asked, did not define what he meant by “bad things” will happen to Iran.

Instead, he delivered an ultimatum. “We’re going to make a deal or get a deal one way or the other,” he said. “10, 15 days, pretty much maximum.”

The Department of Homeland Security lost its deportation case against an anti-Israel activist who led protests at Columbia University after a judge threw it out, citing flawed evidence. Lawyers for Mohsen Mahdawi said the immigration judge ruled on Feb. 11 that there was not enough evidence to support the case and that a memo signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was inadmissible as evidence because it hadn’t been verified correctly.

Nina Froes, the judge, threw out the case mostly because of the problem with the evidence, according to several reports. While this represents a defeat for the administration, it still has two options: refile the case or appeal.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America,” a DHS spokesperson said in an interview with JNS. “When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that.”

Mohsen Mahdawi walks in the graduation ceremony for Columbia University’s School of General Studies. (Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

While at Columbia, Mahdawi had acted as co-president of the school’s chapter of the pro-Hamas organization Students for Justice in Palestine. DHS accused him of participating in major campus disruptions and making public threats, calling him the “ringleader” of the “Columbia University riots.” The department also said that he told a gun store owner that he used to “kill Jews while he was in Palestine” and that “I like to kill Jews.” Mahdawi’s lawyers denied the accusations.

In April 2025, authorities nabbed him in Vermont while he was being interviewed as part of his process to apply for U.S. citizenship. At the time, a judge ordered his release from custody while his case was pending.

Mahdawi reacted to the ruling on Tuesday by saying that it shows that constitutional protections still hold even during contentious times. “In a climate where dissent is increasingly met with intimidation and detention, today’s ruling renews hope that due process still applies and that no agency stands above the Constitution,” he said.

Iran

• U.S. national security officials have told Trump the military is ready for potential strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend, though no final decision has been made.
• U.S. students in an Israeli–American exchange program who were due to return Saturday had their flight moved up after intervention by the U.S. Embassy in Israel and the State Department, and are now flying back to the U.S. today.
• The UK has denied U.S. access to RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia for potential strikes on Iran, citing international law.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader made a public appearance today alongside Quran reciters to mark the beginning of Ramadan.
• US President Trump says ‘really bad’ things will happen to Iran if it doesn’t make a deal. He gives Iran a maximum of 10-15 days to make a deal.

Israel News

• Israel Police canceled all institutional subscriptions to Haaretz, prompting the paper to petition the Attorney General to reverse the decision. – https://jewishbreakingnews.com/israeli-police-force-makes-unprecedented-move/
• Naftali Bennett said he does not boycott Itamar Ben-Gvir or Bezalel Smotrich and signaled openness to sitting with them in a future coalition. – https://jewishbreakingnews.com/bennet-open-to-uniting-with-ben-gvir-and-smotrich/
• The mother of IDF soldier Ofri Yaffe, who was killed by friendly fire in Gaza, said she holds no anger toward the sniper who fired the fatal shot, calling him “my son just like Ofri”. – https://jewishbreakingnews.com/mother-forgives-sniper-who-mistakenly-killed-her-son-says-he-is-like-a-son-to-her/
• IDF combat engineers have destroyed a Hamas tunnel stretching roughly one kilometer in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, the military announced.
• Israel’s Home Front Command has reportedly elevated its readiness to levels comparable to those seen ahead of Operation Rising Lion in June

World News

• Ex-Prince Andrew arrested on 66th birthday as Epstein fallout intensifies and Starmer government faces collapse. – https://jewishbreakingnews.com/5mck
• US President Trump chaired his first Board of Peace meeting in Washington DC.
• While world leaders have been hustling to craft plans to take over government control over Gaza, Hamas has continued to consolidate control over its half of the Strip. – https://jewishbreakingnews.com/hamas-holds-on-signs-show-hamas-wont-cede-power/

The overarching question hanging over the hustle and bustle of setting up the Gaza Board of Peace and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is this: Will Hamas actually cede its authority to NCAG? Signs are pointing to a resounding no. Hamas has replaced officials in senior government positions, succeeding in getting 14 of its 17 government ministries up and running again, compared with five at the height of the war. Video shows a new health minister touring hospitals. Over half of Gaza’s towns and cities are functioning again.

Hamas claims that these are temporary measures while they wait for a transition to take place, but Israeli officials believe they have no intention of giving up their authority.

“The organizational measures taken during the past period were necessary to prevent the collapse of the service system and do not conflict with any future arrangements agreed upon,” said Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-controlled government’s media office, in a statement.

Ali Shaath, chief commissioner of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

The terror organization is collecting taxes, even on smuggled goods, bringing in millions of shekels on cigarettes alone since the ceasefire began last October, enabling it to pay salaries to its members. It has reestablished its police force, bringing down crime and restoring order, further tightening its grip on the population. Hamas has proposed incorporating 10,000 Hamas police officers into the new Gaza police force.

In a document the IDF presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January, it said, “Hamas is advancing steps on the ground meant to preserve its influence and grip in the Gaza Strip ‘from the bottom up’ by means of integrating its supporters in government offices, security apparatuses and local authorities.”

The Israeli government has dismissed the idea that Hamas will play any role in a new government in Gaza, with an Israeli official saying, “Hamas is finished as a governing authority in the Gaza Strip.”

Gazans attend the graduation ceremony of 230 doctors from the faculties of medicine at the Islamic and Al-Azhar universities in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Jan. 3, 2026. (Photo by Omar al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)

Hamas claims that it’s ready to transfer control to NCAG, which is headed by Gaza-born technocrat Ali Shaath, but says Israel refuses to allow any members of the committee to step foot in Gaza. Without responding to this claim, the IDF said that the ceasefire has given Hamas the opportunity to regroup, rearm and reassert control in the smaller half of the Strip that it controls.

Hamas has placed senior officials from its organization into governor roles in five districts as well as various other positions, prompting an official to note that “Shaath may have the key to the car, and he may even be allowed to drive, but it is a Hamas car.” The IDF agreed, saying in its document that “Looking ahead, without Hamas disarmament and under the auspices of the technocrat committee, Hamas will succeed, in our view, to preserve influence and control in the Gaza Strip.”

Even NCAG expressed concern about Hamas’ actions. The committee issued a statement asking for a speedy resolution of all these issues by international mediators, saying it would fail to function as a governing body “without the full administrative, civilian, and police powers necessary to implement its mandate effectively.”

Newly surfaced footage from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport appears to contradict claims by commentator Tucker Carlson that he was detained and forcibly removed by Israeli security upon arrival.

The video shows Carlson relaxed and smiling inside the airport’s VIP lounge, warmly greeting staff, embracing an airport employee, and posing for photos. There are no visible signs of confrontation, restraint, or distress.

The footage, released publicly today, challenges Carlson’s account of events and suggests he was treated cordially rather than being subjected to any form of detention. Instead of a tense encounter, the scenes depict a friendly atmosphere and what appears to be standard VIP handling.

U.S. and Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel Wednesday that the United States has approved a coordinating committee between the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Board of Peace. While Israel is a member of the Gaza Board of Peace, the PA has not been invited to join.

Members of the new panel include Mohammed Mustafa, prime minister of the PA, and Nickolay Mladenov, high representative of the Gaza Board of Peace. The PA had initially expended efforts to be included in both the Gaza Board of Peace, which will oversee reconstruction of Gaza, and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which will manage Gaza’s daily affairs, while Israel worked to keep the PA out. Although the PA failed to secure a position for a PA representative on the Gaza Board of Peace, Ali Shaath, a Gaza-born technocrat, is currently presiding over NCAG as chief commissioner.

As recently as April 2025, Shaath boasted in a podcast interview about participating in terrorist activities in Khan Younis, where he is from, refused to acknowledge the existence of Israel and spewed hateful rhetoric about Israel.

PA representatives met with Nickolay Mladenov, high commissioner of the Board of Peace, in Ramallah in January. (From a post on X)

The PA expects to be involved in reconstruction efforts in Gaza, especially in light of the fact that it controls access to land registration documents that will be needed for compensation when reconstruction begins on land belonging to Gazans. The PA will also be involved in the administration of Gaza’s day-to-day affairs. Hamas is supposed to cede civil authority to NCAG, but that committee will likely need the support of PA civil servants and police.

A major goal of the PA and reason for its desire to stay involved is to reunify Gaza with the Arab-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria under its aegis.

Israel has argued that the PA should not be given any role until it has agreed to undergo reforms, such as ending its “pay for slay” program. Despite promises and reassurances to end the Martyrs’ Fund, as it calls it, the PA has not only continued paying out stipends to terrorists and their families — the more Israelis murdered the higher the stipend — but has also enshrined the program in its new draft constitution for a new Palestinian state.

The PA has countered that it can’t implement any reforms while $4 billion of its tax revenue remains frozen by Israel. The governing body can’t pay its employees, which it said threatens its collapse.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas was not invited to attend the Board of Peace meeting, but Shaath of NCAG is expected to attend.

Some 21 million people worldwide suffer from the debilitating and devastating mental health disorder of schizophrenia. The symptoms not only include the well-known hallucinations and delusions but also a disruption of normal functions resulting in disordered speech, disorganized behavior, inability to perform daily tasks, lack of emotional expression and lack of motivation, among others.

The side effects of medications are sometimes so intolerable that patients stop taking them. In other cases, the symptoms are resistant to medication.

Enter Nir Asch, a doctor and researcher in the psychiatric department at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, who said that the problem with current treatments lies in treating the symptoms instead of fixing the problem in the brain.

Nir Asch, a doctor and researcher in the psychiatric department at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa. (Courtesy/Rambam Spokesperson’s Office)

“A problem we have with many psychiatric diseases is that we define them by the symptoms,” he said in an interview. “In our paper, we provide a clear theory about what is happening on a mechanical level in the brain, and also a way to solve it.”

Hagai Bergman, a neuroscientist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, provided guidance for the study. The professor pioneered a treatment called deep brain stimulation (DBS) that has reduced symptoms in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, another brain disorder. The study showed that DBS is also effective in treating schizophrenia.

Two African green monkeys were given phencyclidine, a drug that simulates the symptoms of schizophrenia. When the researchers applied deep brain stimulation, they observed immediate results.

In the brain, the basal ganglia and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex form a network called the BG–DLPFC network that helps us make decisions and adapt to situations as they change. The globus pallidus externus (GPe) acts like a filter that controls the information flow between the parts of the network. When this is disrupted, a person gets stuck in confused thinking and is unable to process changes around him, leading to delusions and hallucinations. DBS focuses on the GPe, restoring function.

Hagai Bergman, a neuroscientist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with Asch and members of the research team. (Courtesy/Rambam Health Care Campus)

“The cognitive inflexibility was cured,” Asch said about the experiment. “The monkeys returned to the levels of when they were healthy, and they were also much less chaotic.”

“Because the study was successfully performed on non-human primates, whose brains are remarkably similar to those of humans, we’re already meeting to discuss the best way to move forward,” he added, noting that they were ready for clinical trials in humans.

Asch said that working with patients and their families gives him the motivation to press forward.

“When I did the research, I was very much interested in understanding the science,” he said. “But now, seeing the patients and witnessing the burden on their families gives me a lot of motivation to take it to the next step.”

“It can be very frustrating as a doctor when we don’t have great treatments,” he added. “If we can add more tools that are effective and pave the way to recovery, then it would be so wonderful.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett unleashed a blistering attack on conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, calling him a “chickensh*t” and accusing him of staging a brief airport appearance in Israel for optics.

In a sharply worded statement, Bennett claimed Carlson landed at Ben Gurion Airport, snapped a quick photo in what he described as a logistics zone, and then departed — all while allegedly attempting to create the impression that he had meaningfully toured the country.

“The guy who’s been spouting lies about Israel for the past two years landed today at Ben Gurion airport, took a quick picture in the logistics zone, tweeted it to pretend he’s actually in Israel, didn’t even step foot in the country, then made up a story that he’s being supposedly harassed by our security, whined about it, got back into the private jet and flew off,” Bennett said.

Bennett denied Carlson’s claims that he was harassed by Israeli security, stating the incident “didn’t happen,” and doubled down on his criticism by branding the commentator a “chickenshit” and a “phony.”

He concluded by urging audiences to keep the episode in mind the next time Carlson speaks about Israel “as if he’s some expert.”

In a stunning development that has sent shockwaves across the United Kingdom, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, was arrested on his 66th birthday in connection with allegations tied to the Jeffrey Epstein files.

According to the BBC, six police vehicles arrived at his Sandringham residence before officers detained him on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

From the Epstein Files

Thames Valley Police confirmed the arrest but did not initially name the individual. In a statement, the force said:

“We have today on 2/19 arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk.”

Authorities later confirmed the suspect is 66 years old. In the United Kingdom, misconduct in public office can carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The family of Virginia Giuffre have released a short statement. She died by suicide in 2025.
Giuffre accused the former Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. Giuffre was outspoken in the fight against sex trafficking.

Former Prince Andrew with Giuffre from the Epstein files

Andrew’s long scrutinized relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has once again erupted into headlines following the reported release of millions of additional Epstein related documents. According to reports, police are assessing a complaint alleging the sharing of confidential material with Epstein. Newly surfaced documents reportedly indicate that Andrew permitted Epstein to arrange meetings for him during an official trade delegation to China.

Images circulated Tuesday morning showing police vehicles at the Sandringham estate as investigators conducted searches.

The fallout has reverberated through Buckingham Palace. King Charles III is said to have expressed deep concern over the latest revelations involving his younger brother. A palace spokesperson issued a pointed statement distancing the monarch from the controversy:

WINDSOR, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 17: King Charles III and US President Donald Trump inspect the Guard of Honour during the State visit by the President of the United States of America at Windsor Castle on September 17, 2025 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“The King has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations which continue to come to light in respect of Mr Mountbatten Windsor’s conduct. While the specific claims in question are for Mr Mountbatten Windsor to address, if we are approached by Thames Valley Police we stand ready to support them as you would expect.”

Meanwhile, the Prince and Princess of Wales publicly stated that their hearts and thoughts remain with victims and acknowledged being troubled by the newest disclosures.

Political observers say the scandal could not come at a more volatile time for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose government is already facing mounting pressure on multiple fronts. Critics argue that the renewed Epstein controversy risks further destabilizing an already fragile political climate.

As investigators continue searches in Berkshire and Norfolk, the future of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and the broader implications for the monarchy and the British government remain uncertain.

Developing story.

The mother of Staff Sergeant Ofri Yaffe, an IDF Paratrooper who was killed by friendly fire in Gaza, said she received a message from a member of the sniper unit involved in the incident.

Ofri was killed during an IDF operation in Gaza, when initial military findings determined that he was struck by gunfire from Israeli forces during an engineering mission to demolish buildings near IDF positions. The IDF said the fatal shot was fired from a light weapon by a sniper team operating in the area.

His mother, Hadas Yaffe, said in an interview that a soldier from the sniper unit contacted her with an apology on behalf of the sniper and shared condolences with the family following the incident.

Hadas said she does not have any anger toward the sniper or his unit. “The sniper is my son, just like Ofri, and I will hug him and ask him to continue living his life. I don’t have a gram of anger toward him or toward the sniper team. The sniper is supposed to come today, we will hear him out, and we hope he will be part of our family. We have three other children, and we promised them that we would remain a happy family. Ofri had many friends, and his girlfriend, Roni, will be with us forever. We are not alone in this struggle,” she said.

The sniper who contacted the family said he hoped to attend Ofri’s funeral but was unsure if he would be able to. Ofri Yaffe is from Moshav HaYogev, where he will be laid to rest today.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he does not boycott Itamar Ben-Gvir or Bezalel Smotrich and indicated he is open to sitting with them in a future coalition, according to remarks he made at an event in Efrat and in recordings published Thursday morning.

In his public remarks, Bennett said he does not impose a boycott on Ben-Gvir or on Smotrich. Bennett claimed that it is Ben-Gvir and Smotrich who have boycotted him, not the other way around.

In leaked recordings, Bennett addressed both figures directly. Speaking about Ben-Gvir, Bennett said:
“I won’t boycott him, but he is simply a very, very, very unserious person. People don’t like to say it, but clowning is not a substitute for seriousness.”

Bennett contrasted Ben-Gvir with Smotrich, saying that while Smotrich is currently very combative, he knows how to work within government frameworks, works very hard, and is a serious person. Bennett said he wants to ensure that after the election, there will be significant pressure on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to stop boycotting him and to agree to sit with him.

Bennett did not address whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be part of such a government. His comments focused on his relationship with Ben-Gvir and Smotrich and the possibility of post-election cooperation with them.

His remarks triggered reactions within the opposition bloc. Avigdor Liberman wrote on X that Netanyahu must not be partnered with “under any conditions or circumstances.” Opposition leader Yair Lapid said he agrees with Liberman and added that only a large and strong Yesh Atid party would prevent a government that includes Ben-Gvir and the Haredi parties. Liberman later told partners in the opposition bloc that anyone who supports gender exclusion or draft-exemption legislation would not be part of his coalition.

Israeli airline El Al reported that 140 suitcases bound for Israel from the United States were left behind at Los Angeles International Airport after “Free Palestine” stickers were found affixed to the luggage, leading to a security review and flight delay.

The flight, which was scheduled to depart from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv on Monday, experienced a significant delay before takeoff after airport and airline personnel discovered the political stickers on dozens of bags during the baggage loading process. The presence of the stickers raised security concerns, prompting staff to inspect each affected suitcase before the flight could proceed.

According to passengers on board, initial announcements cited a normal delay of about 25 minutes, but the situation quickly became more serious once the luggage issue was identified. El Al staff later informed travelers that the plane would depart without the 140 marked suitcases because detailed checks were taking too long.

When the plane landed in Israel, passengers were informed that their luggage had not been transported and that those bags would be placed on the next available direct flight to Tel Aviv from Los Angeles.

El Al officials told the media that baggage screening was conducted rigorously in accordance with Aviation Security regulations under Israel’s Airport Security Division and Shin Bet guidelines. A spokesperson said the delay and missing baggage were due to a decision by security personnel to carry out extensive checks in response to the stickers, and that better safe than sorry. Security personnel expressed concern about how an employee was able to place the stickers on so many bags in the first place and questioned how similar items might be prevented in the future.

The Israel Police has canceled all institutional subscriptions to Haaretz, a move that has triggered legal action by the newspaper and instigated a heated debate over press freedom and the limits of authority within law enforcement.

The decision was made following an internal directive from a senior police official, including MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, to stop providing Haaretz to police units, stations, and libraries. Police representatives confirmed the cancellation and said it was connected to dissatisfaction with parts of the newspaper’s reporting and articles, however, they refused to point to specifics.

Following the cancellation, Haaretz filed a petition with the Attorney General asking for this order to be overturned. The newspaper argues that the police lack legal authority to block access to a media outlet based on editorial content, that the move crosses a line, and that Israel isn’t a “police state”.

Israeli media outlets said that this step is unusual and could set a precedent if left unturned. They noted that decisions about access to news sources within public institutions should be administrative, and not ideological or personal. They warn that selective cancellations could raise concerns about newspapers feeling pressure to give positive political coverage to specific people and parties. The Attorney General has not yet announced whether the order will be reviewed or reversed.

Tucker Carlson is claiming he was effectively “detained” and interrogated by Israeli authorities the moment he landed in Tel Aviv turning what officials describe as routine airport questioning into what he portrays as a “bizarre” confrontation.

Carlson, who traveled to Israel for a planned sit down with former Arkansas governor and U.S. Ambassador nominee Mike Huckabee, said airport officials confiscated passports and pulled members of his team aside for questioning about the nature of their visit. According to Carlson, his executive producer was taken into a separate room and pressed about the content of their upcoming interview.

Greetings from Israel. pic.twitter.com/1uBWvqBNST

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 18, 2026

The former Fox News host described the encounter as far from ordinary passport control, suggesting Israeli authorities were scrutinizing him over his recent commentary on Israel and the war in Gaza.

U.S. embassy officials quickly pushed back, saying the questioning amounted to standard entry screening procedures that countless visitors experience every day at Ben Gurion Airport. No formal detention was recorded, and Carlson was ultimately allowed to enter the country without charges or restriction.

Mike Huckabee Meets with Israel’s Netanyahu. (GPO)

But Carlson framed the episode as something far more sinister, implying that raising questions about Israel now triggers state level suspicion, even for American journalists.

Carlson told the Daily Mail exclusively that shortly after the interview, Israeli officials confiscated his passport and hauled off his executive producer to an interrogation room. 

‘Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about,’ Carlson told the Daily Mail. 

‘It was bizarre. We’re now out of the country.’ 

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Israel denied that Carlson was detained and claimed he ‘received the same passport control questions that countless visitors to Israel including Ambassador Huckabee and other diplomats receive as part of normal entrance and exit from Israel.’

‘It is not accurate that Israel only was going to let Tucker into the country for the interview,’ the spokesperson added. ‘The only engagement the Embassy had with Israel about his visit was to coordinate his private plane landing as part of facilitating a seamless visit. It was Tucker who chose to only come into the country for a few hours and depart. And Tucker received the same positive treatment of any visitors to Israel.’

Either way, Carlson turned a passport stamp into a political spectacle and ensured the story traveled far beyond the airport terminal.

World News

• American Jewish Speedskater Emery Lehman Captures Silver in Final Olympic Appearance.
• U.S. Preparing for Possible Weeks-Long War With Iran as Israel Warns Conflict Could Begin Within Days.
• Fireworks Shop Blast Kills 12 in Central China During Lunar Year Celebrations.
• Iran is reportedly urging Hezbollah to join the fight against Israel if war erupts.

United States

• New Yorkers Furious as Failed Snow Clean Up Results in Filthy Sidewalks. https://jewishbreakingnews.com/mzzi
• Capitol Police Stop & Arrest Man with Loaded Shotgun Outside the U.S. Capitol https://jewishbreakingnews.com/qyoh
• Mamdani to Raise Property Taxes an Alarming 9.5 Percent If Hochul Doesn’t Agree to Tax the Rich https://jewishbreakingnews.com/promised-relief-delivers-tax-hikes-mamdani-to-raise-property-taxes-an-alarming-9-5-percent/
• The U.S. is withdrawing all forces from Syria.

Israel

• Measles Case Confirmed on El Al Newark–Tel Aviv Flight – https://jewishbreakingnews.com/not-taking-any-chances-measles-case-confirmed-on-el-al-newark-tel-aviv-flight/
• Paratroopers Recon Soldier Staff Sgt. Ofri Yafe, 21, Killed in Friendly Fire Incident During IDF Night Operations in Southern Gaza
• Tucker Carlson Lands In Israel For Huckabee Debate But Never Leaves Ben Gurion Airport Before Flying Out – https://jewishbreakingnews.com/k0e8
• Israel’s Home Front Command has been instructed to prepare for war, and a high-level defensive alert has been declared.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) Chief Yossi Karadi said that hackers have stolen an astonishing two petabytes of information from Israelis in recent years, an amount equal to two quadrillion bytes.

Successful cyberattacks went from being measured by megabytes to gigabytes to terabytes — which are trillions of bytes. The leap from that to petabytes is enormous. To understand the scale of information that was stolen, Israel’s National Library holds 20 trillion bytes of digital data. Two petabytes is the equivalent of Israel’s National Library multiplied by 100.

Karadi also said that Israel saw an increase of 35% in phishing attacks and 170% in cyber influence attacks. Phishing attacks occur when someone tries to trick you into giving up personal information so they can steal your money. Cyber influence attacks are different. Governments sometimes engage in them to shape narratives in other countries that can help influence policy.

Israeli soldiers take part in a four-day, superhero-themed cyberattack drill in Ramat Hasharon, Israel. (Photo by Eliyahu Kamisher/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)

Last week, the Shin Bet and the INCD cautioned the public about the rise in these incidents since mid-2025, including a cyber influence campaign targeting Israeli government officials, security officials, academics and members of the media that has been tied to Iranian intelligence.

Israel is the third most targeted country in the world, but a campaign targeting a British auto company cost two billion pounds, grinding operations to a halt for more than a month and affecting 5,000 businesses, forcing the government to step in to help the company until it could get back on its feet.

Karadi and INDC proposed a new law in January that would add safety regulations that companies must abide by, such as cybersecurity safeguards, and that would require companies to notify the INDC when they’ve experienced a cyberattack.

A Delta Air Lines flight made an emergency landing Wednesday after a passenger attempted to gain entry to the cockpit. The Boeing 747, Delta Flight 2557, en route to Atlanta had just taken off from Hobby Airport in Houston.

“We had a passenger get up and try to access the cockpit,” the pilot radioed to air traffic control. “Can you coordinate and have security standing by?”

The unruly passenger was restrained and the cockpit was secured. Upon confirming that with air traffic control, the pilot also requested emergency medical personnel to be on hand.

“(He is) in cuffs in the back of the aircraft, but he did assault another passenger, so we would like that other passenger checked out,” the pilot said.

The pilot used the emergency transponder to signal an emergency and landed back at Hobby Airport just 17 minutes after takeoff. Emergency vehicles accompanied the aircraft to the gate.

An air traffic controller told emergency responders, “They are coming to the gate. The police are there waiting. Follow the aircraft to the ramp.”

The airplane took off again and arrived in Atlanta 90 minutes after its scheduled arrival time.

Later, Delta told CNN, in a statement that appeared to contradict the pilot’s account, that the passenger “approached crew and customers but did not make contact with or attempt to access the flight deck.”

It remains unclear whether the passenger attempted to enter the cockpit.

The airline issued a statement saying, “The safety of our customers and crew is paramount, and Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior. We apologize to our customers for this experience and delay in their travels.”

The Attorney General’s office announced earlier this week that terrorists captured during the Oct. 7 attack would be tried by a special military tribunal proposed in new legislation that has passed its first reading in the Knesset and is being prepared for the final two readings.

The bill was two years in the making as legislators debated the best way to try the prisoners. Some 6,000 to 7,000 terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 251 hostage. The atrocities committed by the attackers included massacres, rape and torture, some of which they recorded on wearable cameras. The IDF captured 300 of the terrorists and has been holding them in detention centers in various locations while deliberating how to try them.

Screenshot from a video that captures Hamas terrorists in the Southern District base of the Home Front Command near Urim on Oct. 7, 2023. (Screenshot: Channel 12 News)

The bipartisan legislation was proposed by coalition MK Simcha Rothman and opposition MK Yulia Malinovsky. The attorney general, the state attorney and the IDF military advocate general agreed to the terms of the new law, under which terrorists can be charged with all crimes related to Oct. 7, including genocide, terror charges, instigating war and aiding an enemy in wartime.

Furthermore, anyone convicted in the special tribunal will lose eligibility for future prisoner release agreements. This also applies if they are suspected or charged.

A panel of three judges will hear each case. The panel will be made up of a retired district court judge who will serve as chief judge and two judges experienced in criminal law with the credentials to serve as district court judges.

Within this special tribunal, the accused will be granted the opportunity to appeal to a bench consisting of a retired Supreme Court judge, a retired president of a district court or the president of a military appeals court.

The trials will be held publicly and broadcast online.

Tucker Carlson once stood firmly in the camp of mainstream conservative voices who backed Israel without hesitation. During his years at Fox News he was widely viewed as aligned with the pro Israel consensus that dominated Republican foreign policy circles.

But since his departure from Fox in 2023 many longtime supporters say something changed. What began as skepticism over foreign aid gradually evolved into pointed criticism of Israel itself. Today Carlson sits at the center of a deep internal divide within the Republican Party over America’s relationship with the Jewish state.

Greetings from Israel. pic.twitter.com/1uBWvqBNST

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 18, 2026

The latest chapter unfolded today when Carlson made a brief and highly unusual stop in Israel, meeting US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee at Ben Gurion Airport for a filmed discussion. According to reports, Carlson did not leave the airport complex at all and departed the country a few hours later, right after the debate/discussion.

The meeting followed a public exchange between the two men. After Carlson criticized Huckabee and raised concerns about Christian communities in the Holy Land, Huckabee fired back on X on February 5, writing:

“Hey @TuckerCarlson instead of talking ABOUT me, why don’t you come talk TO me?”

Hey @TuckerCarlson instead of talking ABOUT me, why don’t you come talk TO me? You seem to be generating a lot of heat about the Middle East. Why be afraid of the light? https://t.co/iQZBEI72m6

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) February 5, 2026

Carlson publicly agreed to a face to face conversation, setting the stage for the airport debate.

Some political observers believe the encounter carried broader political implications. According to Melissa Francis, a former Fox News and Fox Business anchor active in pro Israel advocacy since October 7, US President Donald Trump has directly urged Carlson and others to turn down the temperature in the internal conservative fight over Israel.

Francis said Trump has encouraged unity on the issue and pushed for calmer rhetoric. Some assume Trump may have quietly encouraged the Carlson Huckabee meeting in an effort to ease tensions within the Republican Party.

In recent months Carlson has questioned US military support for Israel and amplified arguments suggesting American involvement in the region harms US interests. Supporters argue he remains consistent with an America First worldview. Detractors say his position marks a dramatic 180 from his earlier posture.

Some critics have even speculated that Carlson’s rhetoric closely mirrors Qatari messaging. Online commentators have mockingly dubbed him Tucker Qatarlson, alleging that he is advancing narratives favorable to Doha for a paycheck. There is no public evidence that Carlson is on any foreign payroll, but the nickname reflects the intensity of frustration among pro Israel conservatives.

Whether the airport debate signals reconciliation or deepens the divide remains to be seen. What is clear is that Carlson’s evolution on Israel has become a defining fault line inside the modern Republican Party.

For the first time in Israeli history, a female naval officer will take command of a frontline missile boat, the IDF announced.

Lieutenant Commander “Resh,” identified publicly only by her rank and Hebrew initial, is set to assume command of a Sa’ar 4.5-class missile ship during an official handover ceremony scheduled for tomorrow. The Navy described the appointment as a major operational milestone and a reflection of its commitment to professionalism and equal opportunity within its command structure.

Screenshot

The vessel she will command has been involved in several major wartime missions, including the destruction of the Syrian regime’s naval fleet in December 2024, the targeted killing of senior Hamas official Ismail Barhoum in March 2025, the elimination of a senior Hezbollah aerial commander in November 2024, and multiple interceptions of hostile aerial threats.

Resh enlisted in 2016 as a naval cadet and has since risen through the ranks, serving as deputy commander of a missile ship and previously commanding a Dvora-class patrol boat in the Navy’s 916th Patrol Squadron.

Former Fox News anchor and pro-Israel advocate Melissa Francis said in an interview Wednesday with The Jerusalem Post that President Donald Trump was behind Tucker Carlson’s brief visit to Israel to interview Ambassador Mike Huckabee, as part of his effort to calm tensions over Israel within the conservative movement.

“Everybody’s looking for a way to turn down the temperature,” Francis said. “President Trump is telling everyone, including Tucker, ‘Let’s take this down.’”

As tensions escalate within the Republican Party between America Firsters and foreign policy hawks, Francis said that this interview could help steer the infighting into more productive channels with fruitful dialogue to help build bridges.

Tucker Carlson accuses Israel of genocide. (From a video posted on X)

“The division in the Republican Party right now has to end,” she said. The loud arguments, with social media rewarding the most vocal and radical, are “causing endless problems,” and she said Trump’s goal is to keep the coalition united even in the face of disagreement. “The enemy wins when those that are on the side of God are divided,” she said.

As the disagreements over Israel escalated online, Francis thought of bringing the ambassador and the former Fox talk show host together, having ties to both men and wanting to move the endless fighting into something more productive.

“I’m not in a daily show of fighting people,” she said, adding that her work involved projects with long-term goals rather than going toe-to-toe with guests on air. But “this really had gotten out of control,” she said, and she felt the time was ripe for an intervention.

Melissa Francis (Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images)

Francis said Carlson initially agreed, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had signaled that he would not be welcome in Israel. That’s when Francis shifted to Huckabee, saying that Tucker needed an invitation directly from the ambassador in order to feel comfortable traveling to Israel.

She said that Huckabee said Tucker should physically be present in Israel to get a feel for the truth about the current situation. She also said that the two men know each other and, while publicly antagonistic, privately also would like to calm tensions without compromising their authority.

Francis warned against using the antisemitism label too freely because it shuts down conversation.

“Nobody likes to be told what to say and what to do,” she said. “The minute the language turns to ‘You’re antisemitic,’ the conversation stops.”

Nevertheless, she did acknowledge that antisemitism is a real and emerging problem on the right.

Francis has no illusions that this interview will solve antisemitism and the disagreements over Israel but hopes it will serve as a model for productive dialogue as opposed to escalating fights online that serve only to entrench people in their worldview.

“I don’t have the illusion that you’re going to change people’s minds,” she said. “Let’s just stop fighting about Israel.”

All was quiet on the antisemitic front in Andorra, a tiny country nestled between Spain and France in the Pyrenees Mountains — until now. As in many countries in the region, a carnival marks the period right before Lent with a fairly common tradition of holding a mock judgment of a generic individual who represents wrongdoing and burning it. In Andorra, carnival goers put a mock king on trial, shoot it and burn it in effigy. This year, however, marks the first time a carnival created an effigy with Jewish symbols: The carnival put a blue-and-white effigy bearing a Star of David on trial, then shot and burned it, igniting a wave of alarm among Jewish groups.

The idea of burning the Jewish state in effigy echoes the Inquisition’s grisly practice of burning Jews at the stake, most notably in Spain, which borders Andorra and where Catalan, a language so similar to Spanish that Spanish speakers can understand it, is spoken.

The Jewish community condemned the incident as antisemitic and raised concerns that it normalizes hatred of and violence toward Jews.

“This is a ritual they perform every year as part of carnival, where they mock many things,” said Esther Pujol, a Jewish Andorran. “This time they dressed the effigy in the colors of the Israeli flag, with a Star of David on its face. They put it on trial, sentenced it to death and carried out the sentence by shooting and burning it. It is completely unacceptable.”

Pujol said that the mayor of Encamp, the district where the incident took place, and other council members actively participated in the effigy burning.

“It is very serious,” she said. “We have not reached a stage of violence in Andorra, but this began with an effigy and could worsen. There has never been anything like this here.”

Carles Enseñat Reig, president of Andorra’s parliament, criticized the event and called it “unacceptable.”

In addition, the European Jewish Congress condemned the incident and called for action in a statement on Facebook.

“We are outraged by the events reported at Andorra’s carnival, where an effigy bearing the colours of Israel and a Star of David was publicly put on mock trial, hanged, shot and burned in the presence of local officials,” the group said.

“Turning a festive tradition into the symbolic execution of imagery associated with the Jewish state is a deeply disturbing act that risks normalizing antisemitism and incitement. Such displays are incompatible with the fundamental European values of dignity, respect and peaceful coexistence,” it added.

“This incident requires unequivocal condemnation, full clarification of responsibilities and concrete measures to ensure that antisemitism is never tolerated in public celebrations or institutions in Andorra or anywhere in Europe,” the group concluded.

Other European Jewish advocacy groups also expressed their dismay, with the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) saying the incident was “unworthy, outrageous, and provocative.” CRIF threatened sanctions and possibly a boycott of Andorra.

Nevertheless, the festival committee doubled down, saying in a press release that the effigy burning merely represents a satirical take on policies and was simply meant to bring attention to the Gaza-Israel conflict and criticize Netanyahu.

Critics weren’t buying it, however.

“When you hang and burn a figure branded with a Jewish symbol, don’t pretend it’s just political satire,” Hen Mazzig, a well-known Israeli social media influencer, posted on X. “We know exactly what that imagery means.”

An Israeli school will be one of the first to deploy an AI teacher’s assistant to help in the classroom. The robot, named Buddy, will not replace the teacher but will help with tasks like lesson planning and finding resources, giving teachers more time to connect with students and focus on such aspects of growth as social-emotional learning.

The robot will be deployed to a high school near Haifa called ISTS Kiryat Bialik that is part of the Israel Sci-Tech Schools (ISTS) network, which was founded in 1949 and serves about 100,000 students across 264 schools in 54 cities.

“When we first set out to implement AI in Israel’s education system, we knew that its primary purpose must be to strengthen and enhance the work of teachers,” Meirav Zarbiv, deputy director general and head of the Innovation and Technology Administration at the Israeli Education Ministry, said in an interview.

Students at ISTS Kiryat Bialik in Haifa, Israel, pose with Buddy, the AI robot, center. (Courtesy: ISTS)

The round plastic robot, about the size of a large housecat, encases a computer with a screen that projects a smiley face, with a camera bar placed above the screen. It glows with blue circular LED lights and comes equipped with speakers so it can play sound and communicate with students and teachers.

Without replacing the main role of the teacher, Buddy allows teachers “to dedicate more time to individualized student guidance, creative thinking and social-emotional learning, while preserving the central role of the teacher,” Zarbiv added.

In its interactions with students, the robot will help them brainstorm, guide them through assignments and remind them to take short breaks. The students will also learn how to program Buddy to personalize it for their own use, providing a hands-on learning experience in coding and technology.

“Buddy is designed to enhance, not replace, the vital role of our teachers,” said Raya Tubul, director of the ISTS Kiryat Bialik campus. “It allows teachers to dedicate more time to meaningful student engagement while ensuring every child receives personalized attention.”

In addition, students who miss school due to illness or other reasons can access the classroom via an app connected to Buddy, so they can see and hear what’s going on in the classroom.

Yet another pick in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration is raising alarm: Faiza Ali’s appointment as chief immigration officer. Ali formerly served as community affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been accused of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. She has worked with Mamdani on the board of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York. What’s more, she has also worked closely with well-known anti-Israel activist and Jew hater Linda Sarsour, who said Jewish supporters of Israel can’t be feminists, invoked the dual-loyalty trope, accused Israel of Jewish supremacy and once tweeted, “Nothing is creepier than Zionism.”

In her years of religious activism, Ali also served as advocacy director at the Arab American Association of New York. She was the first Muslim American woman to serve as deputy chief of staff to a City Council speaker, who was Adrienne Adams at the time.

Anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour speaks as people attend a protest against President Donald Trump’s new travel ban on June 9, 2025, in New York City. (Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)

Mamdani announced the appointment on Monday, saying in a statement, “At a time when immigrant New Yorkers face escalating attacks and uncertainty, this administration will not equivocate. We will defend our neighbors. We will expand access to services.”

Replacing Manuel Castro, who had been appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams, the Midwood native born to Pakistani parents will focus on coordinating immigrant affairs and advising the mayor on immigration policies affecting New Yorkers in her new role as commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.

“At a time when immigrants are facing escalated and unprecedented attacks, we will prioritize strengthening protections, expanding access to legal and language services, and building real pathways to stability for New York City’s diverse immigrant communities,” Ali said in a statement.

Nihad Awad, executive director of Ali’s former employer CAIR, praised the Oct. 7 attack, extolling what he described as “breaking the siege” of Gaza. He later claimed his words were taken out of context.

The IDF says Staff Sgt. Ofri Yafe, 21, a fighter in the Paratroopers Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit, was killed overnight in the southern Gaza Strip after being hit by gunfire from other Israeli forces.

Initial reporting indicates the incident took place in the Khan Younis area, near the “Yellow Line,” amid nighttime activity, after a mistaken identification. The military says the circumstances remain under investigation and have not been fully determined.

Yafe, from HaYogev, is the latest IDF fatality as forces continue operating in complex, close-quarters terrain where split-second identification errors can turn deadly even for the most trained units.

The IDF’s probe is expected to focus on coordination between units, visibility/marking protocols, and command-and-control during engineering and maneuver activity, areas that have repeatedly proven critical in dense combat zones exploited by Hamas and other terror groups.

Senior U.S. officials are actively preparing contingency plans for a potential military conflict with Iran that could erupt soon and extend for weeks, according to Axios. Israeli officials say they are already bracing for possible hostilities within days, while American sources caution that although a final decision may still take weeks, patience inside the White House is rapidly diminishing amid stalled tensions and rising military readiness.

The Health Ministry issued a measles exposure alert after confirming that a passenger infected with measles was on an El Al flight from Newark to Tel Aviv earlier this week, raising concerns about possible exposure to fellow passengers.

According to the Health Ministry, the infected passenger was on El Al flight LY026, which departed Newark on Sunday, February 15, 2026, at 9:15 p.m. and landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday, February 16, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. The update was released following medical testing conducted by the Jerusalem Health Office.

Health officials said that passengers who were on board the flight may have been exposed to measles, which is highly contagious and can spread through the air. The ministry urged anyone who was on the flight, particularly those seated near the infected passenger and those in higher-risk categories such as children and pregnant women, to check their vaccination status immediately and monitor for symptoms.

The measles virus, paramyxoviridae from the Morbillivirus family, transmission microscopy view. (Photo by: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Public health teams will continue to trace contacts and notify potentially exposed individuals. Health officials remind the public that MMR vaccination is the most effective protection against measles and urge everyone to ensure that their vaccinations are up to date, especially following international travel.

Bnos Penina Girls School, a well-known girls’ school in Lakewood, announced that it has suspended all classes indefinitely due to a severe shortfall in tuition payments.

The school informed parents and families that the decision was made only after exhausting all available options to cover expenses, including reaching out for community support and financial assistance. Administrators said the gap between operating costs and collected tuition has reached a point where the school can no longer maintain normal educational operations.

School administrators did not specify the exact dollar amount of the deficit, but described it as “significant” and beyond what the school’s budget can absorb. They said that late and missing payments from a large number of families over recent months created a financial strain that ultimately forced the decision to halt classes. They added that the Rabbonim in Lakewood were consulted, and ultimately this was the decision of Daas Torah.

The suspension of classes affects students of all grades, and parents have expressed concern and frustration over the sudden disruption to their daughters’ education. Some families posted on community forums asking for updates and urging positive solutions, while others emphasized the need for broader community support to help stabilize the school’s finances.

School administrators said they are actively exploring ways to resume classes, including reaching out to donors, community organizations, and supporters in and beyond Lakewood. They stressed that decisions about reopening and next steps will be based on securing enough funding to ensure the school can operate responsibly and meet its obligations to staff and families.

Newly sworn-in Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday released his first preliminary budget proposal, introducing an ambitious $127 billion fiscal plan for the upcoming fiscal year and forcing a major showdown over how to close a looming budget gap. In comparison, the entire state of Florida just passed a $117 billion budget.

At the heart of the proposal is a threat laid out by Mamdani and his budget team: either Albany agrees to raise taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents and most profitable corporations, or New York City will be forced to consider a nearly 9.5 percent increase in property taxes — a move Mamdani calls a “last resort.”

Today, I’m releasing the City’s preliminary budget. After years of fiscal mismanagement, we’re staring at a $5.4 billion budget gap — and two paths.

One: Albany can raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy and the most profitable corporations and address the fiscal imbalance between…

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) February 17, 2026

Mamdani framed the choice as a matter of fiscal responsibility, saying the city faces an estimated $5.4 billion budget gap over the next two years. His preferred solution is higher income taxes on individuals earning over $1 million a year and increased corporate tax rates, proposals he has championed since his campaign but that have so far failed to gain traction in Albany.

“The city will be forced down the more harmful path of raising property taxes and drawing down reserves only if we cannot secure the fair contributions we need from the wealthiest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations,” Mamdani said at his budget presentation, calling a property tax hike “a painful option of last resort.”

Under the mayor’s numbers, a 9.5 percent property tax increase would affect more than 3 million residential units and roughly 100,000 commercial properties, generating an estimated $3.7 billion in revenue if adopted. Mamdani said he does not want to raise property taxes but is presenting the increase to emphasize the stakes without broader tax reform.

The budget plan also reflects recent state support, including a $1.5 billion funding infusion from Governor Kathy Hochul, intended to alleviate some of the immediate shortfall; however, Hochul has repeatedly said she opposes both higher income taxes on the wealthy and property tax hikes.

Despite coming in last at the Winter Olympics, Israel’s first-ever bobsled team is delighted. Arriving in 26th place means they missed the 20th-place cutoff to advance to the next heat — but to have come this far feels like a victory, says the team’s leader, AJ Edelman.

“What we accomplished today, some kid is going to see in 10, 15, 20 years, and he’s going to be inspired by that to do his own journey,” Edelman said.

“We’re very proud, we’re moving forward to the four-man event,” he added, referring to the next event for the four-person team; the previous races involved two-person teams, which included his brakeman Menachem Chen.

“Israel is in the Olympics, baby!” he crowed. “We did something unbelievable in this sport, to do it by ourselves, piecing it together. People might not realize how amazing this accomplishment is for this country.”

AJ Edelman, left, is embraced by his copilot Ward Fawarseh after finishing last at the Winter Olympics Tuesday night. (From Edelman’s X account)

Edelman is excited to advance to the four-man race and proud of what he and his team accomplished. Israel’s first skeleton athlete to compete in the Olympics in 2018, Edelman dreamed of building the first Israeli bobsled team — and he did it, in the face of enormous difficulties.

He had to cull athletes from all walks of sports: Chen was a discus thrower, Uri Zisman a pole vaulter, Omer Katz a sprinter and Ward Fawarseh a rugby player. In another first, Fawarseh became Israel’s first Druze to compete in the Olympics.

In addition, practices were missed because reserve duty pulled teammates away from training. The team also missed a crucial few pre-Olympic trainings due to security concerns. What’s more, they almost didn’t qualify, but then a spot opened up at the last minute. So making it this far felt like a dream come true. And now, Edelman said, an Israeli bobsled team is a thing, even if his team didn’t win.

“We always want to be the first but not the last,” he said. “I was very sure that, if we didn’t get it done, there would never be an Israeli bobsleigh team in the Games, because no one was going to fight for that. Now we’ve set a precedent. Others can come after us.”

Chen said he believes the team has a better chance at the four-man race because they trained hardest for that.

“Today we had some difficulties, but every day we shave off almost a second from the previous day’s time,” he said. “I’m positive that in the four-man we’ll have much better results.”

The team faced a fair bit of anti-Jewish hatred, par for the course for Jews and Israelis in entertainment. Protests in Milan, where the Games were held, at one point turned violent, and a sportscaster suggested that the openly Zionist Edelman be canceled because of his “support of the genocide in Gaza.”

Edelman made light of the remarks, saying it was “such a sad thing to do.”

“No one is going to remember that,” he added.

The bobsled team. (From a post on X)

“One of the most amazing things about representing Israel is, you know in your heart that it’s the greatest country in the entire world,” he said. “Representing a country for 12 years — I get out of bed to do this, because it’s such an amazing place to represent … I live a very blessed life. I get to compete with the flag on my chest.”

After what he considered his win, Edelman posted about his gratitude on X.

“Words cannot express my gratitude and pride to my team, People, and country,” he wrote.

“Tonight represented the closing of a chapter for me and the beginning of a new one for Israel,” he added. “The race may have been my last in the 2man discipline, but it will not be Israel’s last. Shul Runnings has set the table for continued success. We now move to the team’s signature discipline–the 100m of the Winter Games–the 4 man.”

“We are absolutely going to bring it,” he continued. “Thank you so much for your support. We feel it. I feel it. It is truly an honor unparalleled. We are proud to represent you.”

“On to the next,” he concluded, signing off with an Israeli flag emoji.

Concerned about the reputational damage resulting from widespread media coverage of violence in the territories, 10 distinguished rabbis in Judea and Samaria signed a letter dated Feb. 8 that was released Monday, voicing their full-throated support for new settlements and outposts but condemning all violence unequivocally. In the letter, they warned that ultimately, violent acts could endanger the project of settling the land.

“We are concerned by negative activities, which are carried out at times by people whose intentions are right but whose actions are not right, or, God forbid, by people exploiting the precious and important settlement project for ulterior and illegitimate motives,” the letter read.

The rabbis went on to say that they “oppose violence of any sort,” and that “the reality of life on the hilltops and farms can include complex frictions with respect to a variety of events that demand heroism and self-sacrifice.”

“If, God forbid, rioters try to act against a farm or a point of settlement, [Jews in the territories] must not respond with violence of any sort, but rather call the security forces or the regional council to handle the incident,” the letter said.

Israeli soldiers disperse Arabs near Hebron while providing protection to Israelis in the area. (Photo by Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Unfortunately, a campaign is being conducted that seeks to turn any case of friction, and certainly any case of violence, into a weapon against the settlements overall,” the letter added. “This campaign harms our reputation, in Israel and in the US and around the world.”

The rabbis did not mention their Arab neighbors or identify the rioters, who could also have included left-wing activists who insert themselves into confrontations, ostensibly to protect Arabs — but Jews in the area have accused them of instigating confrontations to film and publicize them in order to make them look bad.

One of the rabbinic signatories to the letter was also quoted as calling for a halt in “attacks on Jewish shepherds” by “Arabs and violent anarchists” as well as what he termed “worrying” security operations against “the youth.”

While violence against Arabs in the region has increased since the war in Gaza began more than two years ago, violence against Jews has also increased.

United States Capitol Police officers arrested an 18 year old Georgia man Tuesday after he allegedly ran toward the U.S. Capitol carrying a loaded shotgun.

The incident unfolded today, on the Lower West Terrace, one of the most heavily secured areas of the Capitol complex. According to authorities, officers quickly surrounded the suspect before anyone was injured.

Police identified the suspect as Carter Camacho, 18, of Smyrna, Georgia.

Carter Camacho. (LinkedIn)

Officials say Camacho was armed with a loaded shotgun and had multiple rounds of ammunition on him at the time of his arrest. He was also wearing what was described as a tactical style vest.

Investigators located the suspect’s SUV parked in front of the U.S. Botanic Garden along Maryland Avenue SW. Inside the vehicle, officers observed a gas mask and kevlar helmet, further raising concerns about the seriousness of the situation.

Thanks to what police described as swift and coordinated action, no injuries were reported.

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan noted that officers had recently conducted an active threat training exercise in the same area where Tuesday’s arrest occurred.

“Just last summer, we held an active threat exercise on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in the very location where today’s officers stopped the suspect,” Sullivan said. He added that similar exercises are conducted monthly throughout the Capitol Complex to ensure officers remain prepared for potential threats.

Camacho faces multiple charges, including unlawful activities, carrying a rifle without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, and possession of unregistered ammunition.

The Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section is continuing to investigate the suspect’s motive. Authorities confirmed he was not previously known to U.S. Capitol Police.