Bein Hazemanim and Wartime

Israel is at war, and that affects everything. First of all, people are affected on a personal level due to the simple fact that everyone tries to stay near a safe room or bomb shelter at all times. That is especially true in light of the fact that air raids have become increasingly frequent. We might have grown accustomed to the missile alerts and the subsequent sirens, but there are also frequent reports of entire missiles or, more commonly, shrapnel falling to the earth, and this is infinitely more difficult to accept as a matter of course. The impacts are reason enough for us to be afraid and frightening enough for everyone to exercise special caution. There have been plenty of cases of shrapnel falling in areas where chareidim live, such as the center of Bnei Brak. In fact, even some of the most well-known areas of Bnei Brak, such as the Kikar HaYeshiva (Rechov Wasserman, near the Yeshiva of Ponovezh) or Rechov Yerushalayim (near the municipal building) have been subject to these impacts.

Last weekend, there was some talk of the possibility that the Home Front Command’s safety guidelines might be relaxed a bit. Meanwhile, the Iranians are increasing their missile fire, maybe because they are on the verge of being forced to surrender, but we cannot be sure of that. And perhaps Hezbollah, as well, is firing missiles from Lebanon because they are on the verge of collapse. But regardless of the reason, the situation on the home front hasn’t yet improved. If anything, it may have gotten worse.

We are all thinking about Pesach as well. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that the war is likely to continue until Pesach, which means that everyone will have to change their plans for yom tov, whether they registered to spend Pesach at a hotel overseas or, more commonly, they are remaining at home but were planning trips on Chol Hamoed. For the yeshivos and kollelim, which will be embarking on bein hazemanim next week, this will not be an ordinary vacation. The roshei yeshivos will be calling on the bochurim to refrain from taking trips and, instead, to participate in organized learning programs during their vacations. There are multiple reasons for this: First, there is no reason for yeshiva bochurim to be conspicuously enjoying vacations while the country is at war. Second, it would be dangerous for them to travel. But above all, the people of Israel need zechuyos now, and what could be better for that purpose than learning Torah.

Rothman Calls Out Hypocrisy

As I’ve reported in the past, Prime Minister Netanyahu froze the new draft law in light of the war. In any event, the Knesset is slated to begin its recess soon and it is doubtful that the law would have had enough time to pass even if it wasn’t frozen. In the meantime, the prime minister made it clear that he is not withdrawing his support for the law; he is simply delaying the vote in the Knesset on the bill, but he plans to bring it to the Knesset for its full approval at the earliest possible opportunity. That will probably be in the summer session, which generally begins immediately after Yom Haatzmaut on the 5th of Iyar—unless the recess is shortened this time. In addition, Netanyahu asked the chareidi representatives to support the state budget even without the draft law being passed. The budget vote is scheduled to be held within the coming days, and the Finance Committee is working hard to keep to the schedule. The committee is debating the details of the budget and hopes to approve it and bring it to the full Knesset soon. I receive updates from all the Knesset committees, and I am therefore kept abreast on what is happening in the Finance Committee. The committee is meeting in the mornings and at nights as it races to complete the process of passing the budget.

The Finance Committee isn’t the only committee that is hard at work at this time. The Constitution Committee, for instance, is busy advancing a new law that will split the position of attorney general into two, dividing the attorney general’s current authorities between a government legal advisor and a general prosecutor. This idea was universally supported for a long time, until the judicial revolution caused the opposition to take a rigid stance opposing any change concerning the judiciary, no matter how correct or proper it might be. This week, the committee chairman, Simcha Rothman, was attacked for trying to advance the law despite the fact that Israel is at war. Meir Cohen of Yesh Atid declared, “This committee discussion is a public and ethical mistake.”

Rothman responded by reminding the opposition about the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the law that canceled the reasonability clause. That provision allowed judges to annul laws or government appointments simply on the grounds that they were “unreasonable,” a subjective call made by the judges themselves. The Knesset passed a law prohibiting the court from using that judicial tool, but the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional, reinstating the reasonability standard. That court ruling was issued in the beginning of 2024. Thus, Rothman pointed out, a dramatic judicial decision was made during wartime in that case, and the opposition did not utter a word in protest.

“While hundreds of thousands of soldiers were fighting in the reserves and the hostages were being held in Gaza, with news of deaths from the front arriving every day and the north being evacuated, the Supreme Court issued an unprecedented ruling on January 1, 2024, by a margin of a single vote among the judges,” Rothman said. “The court wasn’t bothered by the fact that a war was taking place, and you, too, did not say a word.”

Rothman went on to decry the conduct of the attorney general, accusing her of selective enforcement of the law. “A week and a half ago, in the middle of a war, she hurried to submit her position calling for the dismissal of a member of the cabinet [Itamar Ben-Gvir, against whom the attorney general has been fighting a relentless battle]. When it comes to other subjects, meanwhile, she has been asking for countless postponements. And the opposition responded with silence. You are dripping hypocrisy,” Rothman declared.

Will the Judges Impose More Sanctions on Bnei Torah?

The community of bnei Torah may be about to receive yet another blow from the courts. As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, the Supreme Court received petitions against the government for its failure to implement additional sanctions against yeshivos and kollelim. The court ordered the government to discuss the matter and come up with stiffer sanctions within 45 days of its ruling. More than twice that amount of time has already passed, which led to the petitions being filed. The court discussed the case at the beginning of March, and the judges fiercely criticized the government and expressed their objections to its conduct. The attorney general, in her response to the court, agreed with the petitioners and asserted that the government was not complying with the court. Due to the war, the judges did not issue a ruling. However, they wrote, “The state respondents are requested to complete the missing information in an updated notice to be submitted no later than March 22, 2026. It is expected that this period will be used to achieve significant progress. This is especially so in light of what was stated in the previous update—that despite the fact that the time period allotted has already elapsed, no progress whatsoever has yet been made in formulating the governmental policy.”

I don’t know what the government argued in its own defense. At this point, since the draft law was frozen, the government couldn’t have argued that it is on the verge passing new legislation and that there is no need for administrative sanctions. I also do not know what the judges will decide. I do know, however, that the government cannot respond that it has a plan for additional sanctions and stiff enforcement, which is not true. While the arrests of bnei yeshivos are continuing, those arrests have dwindled since the war began (although, unfortunately, they haven’t stopped completely).

It is possible that the judges will make their own demands for specific further sanctions. There are three main sanctions already in place: the removal of stipends from yeshiva budgets, the cancellation of subsidized day care for children of kollel families, and the cancellation of discounts on National Insurance premiums. The judges, in their malice and wickedness, can easily expand this list; they might order housing benefits, property tax discounts, public transportation discounts, and other benefits to be revoked from bnei yeshivos as well. The court might also order the civilian police to collaborate with the military police so that any draft evader who is caught for another reason, such as a traffic offense, will automatically be handed over to the army. At present, the police are reluctant to do this.

This is yet another example of the opposition’s hypocrisy. While the opposition persists in condemning the government for advancing legislation during wartime, they have no problem with the court doing essentially the same thing—pushing for new sanctions against bnei Torah now. War or no war, bnei yeshivos are still being arrested and the battle against the Torah remains in full swing. The sessions of the Supreme Court continue as if the war wasn’t taking place at all. This is saddening for many reasons, but above all because of its impact in Shomayim. By continuing their crusade against Torah learning, the court is inviting the middas hadni.

Under Cover of War, Stores Open on Shabbos

Unfortunately, the war has also given some businesses a pretext to operate on Shabbos. Last Shabbos, the branch of the Super-Pharm pharmacy chain in Dimona was open on Shabbos. The religious community in the city feared that this is a precedent that will continue on the coming Shabbosos, and perhaps that other stores will follow suit as well. The religious community held a protest last week, but there is no way of knowing what will happen next.

Dimona, the southernmost city in Israel other than Eilat, is a traditional city, which makes the decision of Super-Pharm’s management all the more galling. The nearby city of Arad has also been fighting for its religious character over the past few months. Arad is home to a community of Gerrer chassidim, and two chassidim recently acquired the local mall and asked the storeowners to keep their businesses closed on Shabbos. The city is therefore embroiled in a struggle between those who are opposed to chillul Shabbos—including chareidim and other religious or traditional residents—and the elements that demand that the city remain pluralistic.

Another case in point is Ramat Hasharon, where the mayor, a member of the Yesh Atid party, has been working for a long time to erode the status quo and promote the operation of businesses on Shabbos. The municipality recently brought an “amended” bylaw, which stipulates that stores will be permitted to operate on Shabbos, to the city council for a vote. They seem to hope that they will be able to use the war as a distraction or a pretext to enable them to pass the measure. According to the proposal, the city would be divided into different zones of activity, with restrictions or dispensations to operate on Shabbos divided between the different zones.

For the time being, they have encountered opposition from the Ministry of the Interior, which is still controlled by the Shas party. Although the interior minister stepped down from his position, the ministry’s director-general is still a member of Shas. In an official letter sent to the municipality, the ministry demanded clarifications and argued that the proposed bylaw is not justified, and that it might even encourage a situation in which existing crimes are retroactively approved. The Interior Ministry’s main argument has to do with a national law. In 2018, the Knesset passed a law requiring the approval of the minister of the interior for any municipal bylaw permitting businesses to operate on Shabbos. The interior minister is authorized to give his consent only if he receives proof that there is a vital need for the businesses to open. The ministry pointed out that Ramat Hasharon’s proposed bylaw isn’t supported by evidence of such a need; the explanatory notes accompanying the bylaw do not provide specific figures or administrative research to explain the need to permit stores to operate on Shabbos.

The ministry’s letter also sharply criticizes the municipality for the gap between the existing law and the reality on the ground. According to the existing bylaws in the city, it is almost completely prohibited for stores to operate on Shabbos; only eateries and coffeehouses are permitted to open, and only under very specific circumstances. The Interior Ministry points out in its letter that a much wider variety of businesses actually operate on Shabbos in the city, and that the municipality doesn’t enforce the law. This leads to the suspicion that the new bylaw is meant simply to validate a phenomenon that has been taking place for years in violation of the law. This, the letter asserts, is highly problematic, since it will permit business owners who have violated the law for years to receive permits to operate on Shabbos legally, while other business owners, who did not break the law by keeping their stores open on Shabbos, will not have a similar opportunity. The ministry pointed out that such a situation might encourage criminal activity.

Arsonists Target Shul in Ramle

Over the past couple of months, I have written about various cases in which shuls in Eretz Yisroel have been vandalized, torched, or looted. There have been far too many such incidents—although even one case would be too much—but this week brought us yet another such occurrence, when a shul was set on fire in Ramle. At first, it was believed that the fire resulted from a piece of missile debris that fell in the area, but after further investigation, the authorities suspected that it was a deliberate act of arson. Since Ramle (like Lod, Yaffo, and Haifa) is a mixed city, this led to the suspicion that Arab criminals were behind the blaze.

On Sunday, the police in Ramle released the following statement: “The Ramle police department is investigating a case of suspected arson in a shul in the city last night. The sifrei Torah were rescued from the shul, but heavy damage was caused. At first, rescue personnel believed that the damage was caused by debris from the interception of a missile from Iran, but other avenues of investigation are currently being explored, including the possibility of arson. There were no reports of injuries.”

The statement continued, “Based on an initial probe, it seems that the fire began in a warehouse in the back of the shul where food was distributed to the needy. The fire then spread into the shul itself, causing heavy damage. Firefighting and rescue personnel managed to gain control of the fire. The commander of the Ramle police station, Superintendent Effie Teshuvah, said at the site of the fire, ‘At this point, we are examining all possibilities. We will work quickly and with professionalism to complete the investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Even if the fire in the shul wasn’t caused by missile debris, that doesn’t mean that this story is completely unrelated to the war, which might have been the background to their actions. The authorities began to suspect arson as the cause of the fire when it was revealed that the blaze began even before the air raid siren sounded. Mispallelim in the shul praised the firefighting personnel for showing up quickly and working with determination to extinguish the flames. Despite the damage to the shul building, it was a great relief that the sifrei Torah were rescued intact. A picture of a firefighter kissing a sefer Torah spread through the media, evoking an intense emotional response from the public. Captain Assaf Cohen of the Fire and Rescue Service related, “We arrived at a very challenging scene with high flames raging near the marketplace. The firefighters acted with professionalism and at personal risk within the thick smoke to rescue the sifrei Torah while stopping the spread of the fire and preventing a much greater tragedy in the heart of the commercial district.”

We are all greatly appreciative of the firefighters’ actions. At the same time, it is very saddening to learn that a shul was deliberately torched, and we hope that the perpetrators will be caught soon. Indeed, we hope that the criminals responsible for all the cases of shul desecration will soon be brought to justice.

A Stabbing in Ramat Gan

The arson at the shul in Ramle, which was most likely an act of terror, leads us directly to the story of another terror attack that occurred last week. On Thursday, a stabbing attack took place that left the entire country traumatized. For one thing, we were all taken by surprise by the fact that a terrorist struck in the middle of a war, when we expected terrorists in the country to lie low. To make matters worse, the attack occurred in the center of the country, in the heart of the city of Ramat Gan. The video also shows that the Arab stabber acted with particular gall, and no one came to the aid of his victim. The terrorist was an Israeli Arab who works in a nearby pharmacy, and the shock in the religious community was heightened by the fact that the victim was a well-known chareidi public figure: Gedaliah Ben-Shimon, a son of a rabbinic family who served until recently as a member of the Bnei Brak city council. Today, Ben-Shimon is the head of the religious council in Ramat Gan. He was stabbed upon exiting a shelter after an air raid siren, when the street was almost completely deserted.

Ben-Shimon was rushed to Ichilov Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition and the doctors began fighting to save his life. He was immediately placed in a trauma room; meanwhile, the attacker, a resident of the Arab community of Jatt, was apprehended after fleeing from the scene, disposing of his knife, and changing his clothes; his efforts to avoid detection were unsuccessful.

Mayor Carmel Shama Hakohen of Ramat Gan told the media, “The background to this incident is still unclear and is under investigation by the police. I pray that this wonderful, precious man, whom I love and respect, will recover quickly. I must emphasize that despite the rumors that there were shouts of ‘allahu akbar,’ the police haven’t confirmed this.”

Aryeh Deri arrived at the hospital and summoned the best doctors to treat Ben-Shimon, consulting with Rabbi Elimelech Firer to select the medical staff. Deri said in a statement at the hospital, “I am shaken to the depths of my soul by the horrific attack committed by a violent criminal against Gedaliah Ben-Shimon, the chairman of the religious council in Ramat Gan, who was severely wounded and is in serious condition. I call on the public to daven for the complete recovery of Gedaliah ben Yeshuah.”

As of this writing, four days after the stabbing, Ben-Shimon’s condition has stabilized and his life is no longer in danger. The doctors feel that his recovery is a miracle. When he was first brought to the hospital, they did not believe that he would survive even for a few hours. But we have all remained deeply traumatized by this attack.

Indictments Rescinded in the Sde Teiman Affair

This week brought the end of a scandal that has accompanied us since July 2024: the Sde Teiman affair. It began when a group of soldiers serving at the Sde Teiman base, where they were responsible for guarding security prisoners, were accused of torturing a terrorist. Several soldiers were arrested and condemned for the incident and were told that they would be indicted on criminal charges. This affair led to another major scandal, involving the military advocate general. After months of debate over whether the soldiers were truly criminals or the victims of a libel, Channel 12 published a video that seemed to substantiate the allegations against them. However, it was later revealed that the video was doctored—but not before it was viewed millions of times all over the world and caused a massive uproar against Israel and the IDF.

The story gets even worse. The military prosecution was asked to find out who had leaked the video to the television station; after ostensibly looking into the matter, they claimed that they had investigated it thoroughly and it was impossible to determine the leaker’s identity. The Supreme Court was then petitioned to instruct an external body to take over the investigation, but Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara argued that it was an insult to claim that the military prosecution couldn’t investigate the matter themselves. If the military prosecution had no way to solve the case, she insisted, then no one else would be able to identify the perpetrator. But then the story took a surprising turn. After David Zini was appointed to the position of head of the Shin Bet, the military advocate general’s spokeswoman was required to undergo a polygraph test administered by the Shin Bet before she was promoted to serve as a military judge. That test revealed that the MAG herself had been responsible for leaking the video to the media, as her spokeswoman had no choice but to admit. Their claim that the leaker could not be identified was merely a ploy to cover up the MAG’s role in the story. MAG Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi hurried to step down from her position before she would be fired, and the matter is still under investigation. Baharav-Miara wanted to be the one to head the investigation, but the Supreme Court ruled that she had a conflict of interest. At this time, there is no one overseeing the investigation, and it is widely feared that the story will be whitewashed.

Meanwhile, the soldiers at the center of this scandal were still considered suspects in a criminal case, facing potential indictments, until last week. Last Thursday, the current MAG, who replaced Tomer-Yerushalmi, announced that the prosecution had decided to close the case against the soldiers and cancel the indictments. The official explanation was that the decision resulted from a new assessment of the evidence and the circumstances of the case, including the fact that the security prisoner who was their alleged victim had been released to Gaza. The official statement from the IDF explained that after the indictments were filed, “significant developments” took place that led the new MAG to cancel the proceedings against the five defendants, including the fact that in the absence of their supposed victim, there was no one left to testify against them. In any event, the entire story seems to have been fabricated, which would explain why the army decided to release the prisoner at the time. Another factor in the decision was the behavior of senior figures in the military prosecution and law enforcement; the “extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances” likely have to do with the crimes of the military prosecution itself. The IDF claimed that the unusual circumstances and their effects on the defendants’ right to a fair trial led the current MAG to decide to drop the charges.

The decision evoked many reactions, including calls for the criminals in the military prosecution to be brought to justice despite the closure of the case. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “The blood libel known as the Sde Teiman affair against the soldiers of Force 100, which caused unprecedented damage to Israel’s image around the world, has reached its end. It is unacceptable that it took so long to close this case, which was managed in a criminal fashion against IDF soldiers dealing with the worst of our enemies. The State of Israel should be prosecuting its enemies, not its valiant soldiers.”

A Blow to the Police: Urich Returns to Netanyahu’s Office

This is only a small sampling of the latest news; there is much more to report. For instance, there was President Trump’s latest statement against President Herzog and the latter’s attempt to defend himself. Amid Trump’s calls for a pardon for Netanyahu, the Ministry of Justice released its professional decision on the subject, which neither opposed the pardon nor endorsed it. The issue has now been transferred to Minister Amichai Eliyahu, since Justice Minister Yariv Levin is viewed as having a conflict of interest on the subject. Everyone is now waiting to hear whether Minister Eliyahu will recommend pardoning the prime minister.

But let me move on to a few judicial matters that are interrelated. I am not sure how much of this news has reached the United States, but these stories are in all the headlines here in Israel. From our standpoint, this is yet another piece of evidence of the deep state’s witch hunt against Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone with a connection to him.

For a long time, two of Netanyahu’s closest confidants, Yonasan Urich and Tzachi Braverman, have been under police investigation in cases that reeked of groundless persecution. Urich is a close advisor to Netanyahu and Braverman is his chief of staff. Both men were barred from maintaining contact with Netanyahu, and Urich was held in custody for months. This week, after the case remained undecided for a long time, the court decided to permit both men to resume contact with the prime minister—which meant, in effect, that they could return to work.

Was it really reasonable to paralyze the Prime Minister’s Office in this way, especially during a war? Of course not! But the police are completely indifferent to those considerations. In fact, they even weighed summoning Netanyahu himself to testify in the case against Braverman during the war, but they relented in the face of a public outcry. The revulsion for the tactics employed by the police was repeatedly fueled by verdicts issued by Judge Mizrachi, who identified defects in the police’s work in one ruling after another. For instance, Mizrachi wrote, “There is no justification for ordering Netanyahu’s employees to cut off contact with him for endless periods of time with almost no precedent or parallel in the world of criminal justice, certainly when the external circumstances and the unique situation require them to be in contact.” But Mizrachi’s decisions were repeatedly overturned by the District Court in response to appeals submitted by the police. This week, however, the state did not appeal, realizing that they would have no chance of winning.

The Magistrates’ Court in Rishon Letzion ruled this Sunday that Yonasan Urich, an advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu, is permitted to return to his job in the Prime Minister’s Office. Urich was removed from the office about a year ago, when the investigation began, and he responded to the court’s decision by writing, “I’m going back to work.” After the restrictions were lifted, Netanyahu spoke with Urich, and the latter wrote, “After far too long, I finally spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife Sarah tonight. I applauded the prime minister for his work on behalf of Israel’s security and ensuring Israel’s survival throughout the time when we were prevented from being in contact. The prime minister promised to change the Middle East, and that is what he has done and will continue to do until our victory is complete. I told the prime minister that it will be the greatest privilege in my life to continue standing at his side during these times, to help him defeat all of our enemies and to guarantee a secure, thriving State of Israel for the coming generations. Thank G-d for this moment and for everything that is yet to come…. I am going back to work. Thank you to everyone. Bibi, get ready; I am on my way.”

I believe that Urich will soon reveal many crimes committed by the police. This week, he gave the public a small glimpse into his ordeal: “At 3:00 in the morning, I was placed in a small prison cell, beneath the open sky, after an intake and a degrading search. The cell was flooded with water and leftover food, and I had nowhere to sit, and certainly nowhere to lie down and sleep. I stood at the door of the cell, leaning on the bars, and looked outside. I needed a drink of water after being questioned for twelve hours, but I discovered that the faucet didn’t work. I felt more isolated than I had ever been. I didn’t think that I would ever see my family again, and certainly not the prime minister. I felt as if my life had ended there.” I am sure that there is much more that will yet come to light.

Police Choose Not to Appeal Against Braverman

After weeks of restrictions, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, will now be permitted to resume contact with him as well. This, too, comes in the wake of a court ruling that the police have chosen not to appeal. Once again, it was Judge Mizrachi who issued the ruling, canceling all the restrictions that were placed on Braverman during the course of the investigation.

The investigation into Tzachi Braverman has been linked to what is known as the “nighttime meeting.” Braverman was accused of obstructing an investigation after he met with Eli Feldstein late at night on October 5, 2024, in the parking lot of the Kirya government complex in Tel Aviv. Feldstein is a former spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office who was implicated in the leak of a document to the German newspaper Bild. It was believed that Braverman had obtained information about the investigation into Feldstein, which he wanted to share with him. The police therefore launched a new investigation to determine how this information reached Braverman and what he hoped to accomplish by meeting with Feldstein. Their meeting came to light when Feldstein was interviewed by the media and spoke about his encounter with Braverman; his account of their meeting led Braverman to be arrested and questioned and subsequently barred from the Prime Minister’s Office. There was also a concern that he might lose the opportunity to assume the position of Israeli ambassador to London, which had been assigned to him. Time after time, Judge Mizrachi insisted that the investigation was unfounded, but the state appealed repeatedly to the District Court, which overturned every one of his rulings.

Police investigators arranged a face-to-face confrontation between Feldstein, Braverman, and Omer Mansour, another spokesperson for the PMO who was involved in the case. None of the participants denied that the meeting took place; they argued only about its contents. Braverman claimed, “I did not know about the covert investigation into the leak to the Bild. I did not know that there was such a case, and I made no attempt to obstruct an investigation.” The attorney general also permitted the police to summon Prime Minister Netanyahu for questioning on the subject.

Judge Mizrachi has repeatedly rejected requests from the police to extend the restrictions on Braverman. In his ruling, he noted that the case against Braverman rests primarily on Feldstein’s version of the story, which the judge characterized as unsupported by objective proof. After winning multiple appeals in previous weeks, the state decided this time to accept Mizrachi’s verdict.

The Betzalel Zini Case

There was another blow to the state prosecution, this one also indirectly connected to Netanyahu. Several officers in the IDF reserves were arrested a while ago on suspicion of smuggling cigarettes into Gaza. The only reason the case reached the headlines was the fact that one of those officers was Betzalel Zini, brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini. The Israeli public suspected that the case had been concocted as another attempt to strike a blow at the Shin Bet director, who is a thorn in the side of the left, the deep state, and the judicial junta. And that was only the beginning. The next step came when the prosecution decided to bring charges of aiding the enemy during wartime against all the defendants in the case. There wasn’t a single sane legal expert who could identify the rationale for adding this extremely severe clause to the indictment; the only reasonable explanation was that it was part of the effort to harm the director of the Shin Bet. After all, a group of Bedouins who had been caught committing the same crime were charged only with tax offenses. But the law apparently has a different standard for someone whose last name is Zini.

Until last week, all 15 suspects in the affair were held behind bars. Last week, the Beer Sheva District Court decided to release all of them under certain restrictive conditions. The state appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, and while the prosecution might be accustomed to having a higher court accept its position, they were disappointed this time. On Monday morning, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal from the prosecution and upheld the lower court’s decision. All 15 defendants, including Betzalel Zini, were therefore released to house arrest, where they will remain until the end of the judicial proceedings.

Judge Gila Canfi-Steinitz (the wife of Yuval Steinitz, a former longtime government minister from the Likud party) spoke about the severity of the crime but added, in another blow to the prosecution, that she saw no reason to include the charge of aiding the enemy in the indictments. “It goes without saying this that this is a very serious and egregious case,” she wrote. “During a difficult time for the state, when the citizens of Israel were suffering beneath the burden of war and our soldiers were fighting in the Gaza Strip, the defendants chose to use the war as a means of making personal profits for themselves…. There are difficulties in attributing security crimes to the defendants. To date, this unique and severe charge has not been applied in circumstances similar to those before us, namely, systematic acts of smuggling civilian goods, even in large quantities and even in circumstances in which they might have reached the enemy. The case of the respondents is far removed from any other cases described in the law.” After elaborating extensively on her point, the judge concluded that the charge has no bearing on these specific defendants.

Parenthetically, Zini has already proven that the proceeds from the sale of cigarettes were distributed to soldiers in need of financial aid.

And all this is taking place in the middle of a war.