Election Takes Center Stage

Another week has gone by, and, as always, I have much to tell you about. This weekend will mark the yahrtzeit of two of the rabbonim who influenced our community heavily over the past generation: Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel and Rav Chaim Walkin. On the same day, the 11th of Cheshvan, masses of people will visit Kever Rochel in honor of the yahrtzeit of Rochel Imeinu. I imagine that many people will take advantage of the opportunity this year to daven for the lomdei Torah of this country, who are subject to persecution, and will daven for the religious parties’ success in the election as well. Those are not two separate subjects; in fact, both causes and inextricably intertwined. If the chareidi parties emerge from the election with little political clout, it might jeopardize the future well-being of the country’s bnei Torah. On the flip side, if they increase their political strength, it will add to their influence and will be a statement to the rest of the country as well.

Much has happened over the past couple of weeks. For one thing, more terror plots have come to light. Last weekend, the media reported that IDF soldiers in the Menashe Brigade carried out two arrests, based on intelligence from the Shin Bet, in the villages of Qabatiya and Arraba, taking into custody four terrorists from Islamic Jihad who were plotting to carry out a terror attack in the northern Shomron. In an additional arrest in Beit Rima in the Binyomin region, soldiers from the Duvdevan unit detained a suspect who had been trafficking in weapons. The terrorists were transferred to the security forces for additional questioning. In addition, an attempted terror attack in Yerushalayim was detected and thwarted in time.

We are witnessing Arab violence in Europe, and in France in particular. While this story doesn’t seem directly relevant to us, the truth is that it is very significant. For one thing, the hypocritical Europeans are constantly decrying Israel’s “apartheid” and “genocide” and have recently been harassing Israeli settlers, whom they describe as “terrorists.” The Israelis try to defend themselves by pointing to the Arabs’ barbarity, but those explanations fall on deaf ears. Well, now the Europeans have experienced that barbarity in their lands. It seems that one country after another has been overrun by Muslims, who are leaving mayhem and devastation in their wake. Netanyahu and President Trump have pointed out that they warned Macron this would happen… Many Jews from France have begun making preparations to move to Israel.

With all due respect to these important topics, however, the issue that has attracted the most attention lately is the upcoming election due to take place next Tuesday. In less than a week, ballots will be cast to determine who will hold power in the next Israeli government. All of us, of course, are davening for a favorable outcome. This election may be more critical than ever, since bnei yeshivos have been targeted for harassment over the past year. We cover recent events within the chareidi parties in a separate article, and will not go into excessive detail on the subject here, but I must write about the widespread hatred for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Libels Against the Prime Minister

The closer we get to election day, the more all of Netanyahu’s haters crawl out of the woodwork. They all have stories to tell and accusations to make against the prime minister, in a bid to cast him in a negative light, and while their actions are blatantly biased and politicized, they do not seem to care that their agenda is transparent. They will balk at nothing, even the lowliest tactics imaginable, for the sole purpose of transferring more votes from the right to the left. It has become in vogue to accuse Netanyahu of dragging out the war in order to score points in the election. In fact, this is not a new phenomenon; many years ago, Menachem Begin was accused of attacking the nuclear reactor in Iraq in order to win an election. In any event, now that tensions are rising in the Middle East, many people in Israel are accusing Netanyahu of pushing for war in the hope that it will boost his chance in the election, or even that it will cause the election to be postponed.

One must wonder what these critics expect of the prime minister. If he is weighing the possibility of launching airstrikes on Iran, do they want him to hold back because of the election? If a military offensive is necessary, how can it be postponed? In my opinion, the attacks on Netanyahu from the media and from other politicians amount to poisoning the well. Lately, an endless stream of fabrications has been concocted about Netanyahu and his aides. Even Ronen Bar, the failed former head of the Shin Bet who was in charge of the agency at the time of the October 7 massacre, filed a lawsuit for libel against Netanyahu last week for the prime minister’s claim that he had not been warned in advance about the massacre. Bar claimed that he has evidence that he warned Netanyahu before the invasion and that the prime minister was slandering him by insisting that he had received no such warning; however, the lawsuit has backfired on Bar. After all, it gives rise to an obvious question: If, as he claims, Ronen Bar had clear knowledge of the impending calamity in advance, then why did he merely warn Netanyahu—according to his claims, which Netanyahu denies—instead of taking action to prevent it? If his own story is true, then it points to a serious failing on his own part.

Meanwhile, another accusation turned out to be a libel. Last month, all the media in Israel reported a hair-raising story: They claimed that the head of Egyptian intelligence had visited Israel on September 26, 2023, for a few hours to warn Netanyahu about the impending Hamas invasion. According to all the reports, the Egyptian intelligence chief’s plane landed in Ben Gurion Airport and stayed there for slightly more than two hours while the Egyptian official met with Netanyahu, and then he returned to Egypt. This story, if it were true, would have indicated an unforgivable failure on Netanyahu’s part; if he was warned about Hamas’s plans and took no action, it would have been a horrific lapse. Parenthetically, all the media outlets in Israel based their reports on a story that first appeared in the Atlantic. This was added to a report in the Wall Street Journal, which claimed that the head of Egyptian intelligence had called Netanyahu at the beginning of October 2023 to warn him about an impending attack from the Gaza Strip. Thus, according to these stories, Netanyahu had actually received two warnings from Egypt before the disaster took place. Of course, Netanyahu went on the defensive upon hearing these allegations, but he didn’t know how to begin explaining himself. In a televised interview, Netanyahu said, “I never met with anyone, and I knew nothing. If the head of Egyptian intelligence visited Israel, then let them reveal whom he actually met.” The media’s claims, in any event, made Netanyahu seem guilty of criminal negligence on a horrific scale.

This week, however, the television channel Kan News issued a brief update on the story: The Egyptian plane that landed in Israel a few days before October 7 wasn’t carrying the head of Egyptian intelligence, after all. Instead, there were two Egyptian businessmen aboard, who landed briefly to refuel their plane and then continued their flight. That is how the libelous accusations against the prime minister came to an end: without any apology or explanation, and without anyone taking responsibility or investigating how the media could report such an egregiously false and devastating story. A major brouhaha raised by masses of journalists and politicians, some of them veterans in their respective fields, was exposed as a lowly blood libel, and no one felt the need to apologize.

And if we are speaking about Netanyahu, then we cannot fail to mention President Trump’s endorsement of the prime minister at the beginning of this week. While a similar endorsement didn’t benefit the candidate in Hungary, in this case Trump almost went so far as to stipulate that his continued support for Israel against Iran will be contingent on Netanyahu remaining in the office of prime minister. And that is quite significant.

Hoping to Silence the Enemies of Religion

To be honest, we are trembling with apprehension here in Israel. There is much at stake in this election, and there are many ways that it can end in disaster. What gives us strength is the knowledge that events in this world are not random, and that the world has a Master Who orchestrates all of its events, great or small. Nothing is left to chance, and no matter how bleak the situation seems, we must always keep in mind that everything that occurs is the work of Hashem.

Nevertheless, from a natural standpoint, the situation seems very bad. For one thing, there is much reason to be fearful that the left-wing bloc might win this election, and that would likely spell disaster. They may fight among themselves over everything, but there is one issue on which they are united: They have all pledged to continue persecuting the chareidim after the election and with even greater intensity. Considering that the lomdei Torah have suffered greatly this year, from arrests and legal harassment and from economic sanctions as well, I shudder to think about what might happen if the next prime minister is a person such as Bennett, Lapid, or Lieberman. Then again, experience has shown that these people will pay any price in the world to gain power; perhaps, then, there is reason to hope that they might soften their respective stances if they are elected. At the same time, even if Netanyahu wins the election, we have already seen that he isn’t prepared to make endless sacrifices for the chareidim. In fact, he has already hinted that he would prefer to form a coalition with Eizenkot rather than with the chareidim and the political right.

The bottom line is that we must daven with great fervor for the religious community’s well-being after the election.

In any event, I believe that this election will benefit us in one way: It will remove some very bad people from the political map. There is a Judge in this world, and those who sin will ultimately pay the price. I often think back to the days of the criminal investigation into Aryeh Deri, when Divine hashgocha was clearly at work. Deri’s opponents in the halls of government were certain that if they managed to jail him, the revolution that he had created would be terminated. But what happened instead? For one thing, Yeshivas Shaagas Aryeh was opened, where hundreds, then thousands, and then tens of thousands of people came to attend shiurim and shmuessen in an area adjacent to the prison in Ramle where Deri was being held, on the initiative of Rav Uri Zohar. The Prison Service, the police, and the government officials were shocked and intimidated. At the same time, many individuals in the police and Prison Service were sympathetic to Deri and the religious community. Those who were prepared to tear their hair out in frustration were the eirev rav and the minions of the yetzer hara, who dominated the halls of the judiciary at the time and still control it today.

But today, many years later, we can see what became of their schemes. Think about it: Where are former Justice Minister Dan Meridor and former State Prosecutor Dorit Beinish today? Where are the wicked investigator Meir Gilboa and onetime Minister of Police Roni Milo? Where is Elyakim Rubinstein, who held the office of attorney general at the time? And where are all the others who joined them in their tyrannical crusade? These people have faded from the public scene, but where is Aryeh Deri, the man they tried to wipe off the political map? The contrast is striking.

The same pattern is repeating itself in the political world today. For instance, Yuli Edelstein, who was considered a friend of the chareidi community in the past, is now notorious for obstructing every effort to pass a law providing draft exemptions for yeshiva students. It is difficult, or perhaps impossible, to explain what caused him to mount such fierce opposition to the draft law, but that is irrelevant. What matters is that he no longer holds a position of influence. And then there is Yesh Atid, the party that built its agenda on hatred for the chareidim and persecution for lomdei Torah. Where is that party today? Simply put, it is in a state of complete collapse. Many of the other Knesset members who persecuted the chareidim, such as Yoaz Hendel, Dan Illouz, Ofir Sofer, and Sharren Haskel, are fighting a desperate battle for their political survival today. And while a few of the religious community’s enemies in the Knesset managed to slither into Eizenkot’s party—such as Elazar Stern and Matan Kahana, two men who wear yarmulkes but are bitter enemies of the chareidim and even the religious right—they, too, will ultimately receive their just deserts. For we know that there is a Judge in this world, and judgment will ultimately take place. One by one, the malefactors in the government and suffering their respective downfalls.

The Need for Religious Representation

On the topic of the election, allow me to make a comment about one area where I have some understanding: the Knesset. As the election draws near, it is appropriate to use every tool at our disposal to advance the cause of the chareidi parties. We see the notices in the chareidi presses and on message boards on the street, all of which urge the average voter to make sure to show up at the polls on Election Day and to see to it that the religious parties succeed. The top minds in the religious world are working on these campaigns, but the message must also reach voters in the traditional community or those who are still undecided, and I am not quite certain that those people live in Givat Shaul or on Rechov Sorotzkin (or on Rechov Rashbam or Rechov Rabi Akiva in Bnei Brak). To reach them, the campaigns must expand even further. Within the two weeks prior to the election, however, there is still opportunity to target those voters: Every party is given air time on the radio and on television stations, and millions of Israeli Jews tune in to these programs. Let us hope that the focused, effective campaigns of the chareidi parties will operate successfully through those channels as well, and that their effects will be felt on Election Day. The programming began last Tuesday and will continue until the day before the election, and it is a golden opportunity for the parties to reach millions of non-chareidi voters. If the opportunity is used properly, it may be possible for the chareidim to win another mandate or two as a result of these efforts, especially for the Shas party.

Tragedies in Beitar and in the North

Two tragedies took place in Israel last week, each of which caused endless sorrow. Yes, every death of a child is a dreadful tragedy, whether it is a case of crib death (which also occurred this past week) or a child’s death in a traffic accident (which happened as well), but these two incidents were so unusual and aberrant that they were even more horrifying.

The first incident took place in Beitar Illit, where a young boy named Eliyohu Azriel was killed by an explosion near a burning recycling bin on Rechov HaRebbe MiNadvorna. The boy was critically injured by an object that flew out of the recycling bin and was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem in Yerushalayim, where the doctors were forced to declare his death. At first, it was believed that the explosion was caused by a deodorant can in the bin, but it is now believed that a battery from an electric bicycle was in the bin and exploded when it was exposed to the extreme heat of the fire. A video of the explosion shows the moment when the boy was struck, but it also indicates the magnitude of the miracle that accompanied the tragedy. At the time of Eliyohu’s death, dozens of curious children had gathered around the recycling bin to watch the fire. Under other circumstances, chas v’shalom, the incident could easily have led to many more injuries. The video also shows another child lighting the fire in the bin prior to the explosion, in an act of mischief that led to a tragic outcome.

The second tragedy occurred in the north, where Elozor Yair Vilensky, a student in the yeshiva high school in Maalot, was killed and 24 students and teachers were wounded in an explosion. This incident took place on a school trip, when the students came across an unexploded warhead from a missile or something of the sort, which subsequently blew up. The IDF declared it a mass casualty event and sent helicopters to the scene, and the police opened an investigation. The images of dozens of wounded victims lying on the ground were too painful to see. The incident occurred at the Ramim Ridge, an area about 50 to 100 meters from the northern border. There is a manned security outpost not far from this area, which was staffed by combat engineers throughout the war and therefore became a target of choice for Hezbollah during the war. It is believed that the deadly explosive that caused the tragedy was a component of a Hezbollah missile or shell that was fired toward the area and did not explode at the time, and was hidden by the lush greenery and went undetected until it was found by the students. According to some accounts, one of the students picked up the explosive and placed it in his bag, and it exploded shortly thereafter.

Prime Minister Netanyahu reacted to the tragedy as soon as it was reported. An official statement from his office announced, “Prime Minister Netanyahu was briefed on the details of the incident in the north and spoke with Eli Bin, director of Magen Dovid Adom, and with Minister of Education Yoav Kisch, as well as his military secretary. The prime minister asked to make certain that the victims would be evacuated as quickly as possible to the hospitals, and he is continuing to engage in regular situation assessments.” Shortly thereafter, Netanyahu visited Rambam Hospital in Haifa and met with the victims of the blast. Five of the hospitalized victims are listed in serious condition! The education minister announced that all school trips in the area will be canceled for the time being.

Ambassador Huckabee: Trump Was Not Pressured to Attack Iran

Ambassador Mike Huckabee was recently interviewed by an Israeli newspaper. When he was asked about what America is prepared to do to defend Israel, his response surprised the interviewer (who is not known as a fan of the right or of Netanyahu). “When the United States acts against Iran, it is not defending Israel; it is defending its own interests,” Huckabee said. “Israel might be the first course for the Iranians, but we are the main course. When someone shouts ‘death to America’ for almost 50 years, it might be worthwhile to pay attention to what he is saying. We are not merely supporting Israel; we are its partners, and that is for our sake as well.”

He went even further when he was questioned about America’s air strikes on Iran. “I disagree with the notion that someone pressured [President Trump], hoodwinked him, or deceived him,” Huckabee said. “I was in the situation room in the White House when the decision was made about Operation Roaring Lion. Most of what happened in that room is classified and I cannot reveal it. Maybe I’ll write a book about it one day. I can tell you that the president did not act under pressure from Israel. Israel never pressured President Trump to intervene; he did it on his own initiative.”

Huckabee studiously avoided making any definitive statements about the future of the war against Iran. “I can’t give you a forecast about additional military operations,” he said. “That decision will be made by the president in Washington. What is clear to him is that Iran is weaker than it has been in nearly 50 years, both militarily and economically, and it is becoming even weaker as time goes on.”

The ambassador described the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump as “still very strong and solid.” He said that Netanyahu and Trump speak regularly and have a personal relationship that was developed over many years. He described relations between Washington and Yerushalayim as particularly close. “We are partners and work together incredibly well, much more than most people will ever know,” he said.

Huckabee was asked for his take on how the American midterm elections would affect relations between the two countries. “I’d like to believe that most Americans understand that Israeli is a valuable strategic partner—not just an ally but a true partner,” he said. To prove his contention, he pointed to the collaboration between America and Israel during Operation Roaring Lion, when he related that Admiral Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM, told him that there had never been such smooth collaboration with the American army before.

Huckabee also weighed in on the topic of Israeli settlers. He recently spoke out against the settlers after witnessing violence with his own eyes, and the interviewer apparently hoped to extract more condemnation from him. However, the result was exactly the opposite. Huckabee admitted that he was surprised to see the settlers entering the property of a Palestinian family in the presence of his bodyguards and the media. “It was disturbing. I was surprised by their brazen behavior,” he said. “People are entitled to defend their own property, but they have no right to trespass on someone else’s property and sometimes even terrorize or intimidate people simply through their presence there.” However, Huckabee said that 99.9 percent of settlers are “incredibly responsible.” He added, “People have built beautiful communities, hospitals, medical clinics, synagogues, and stores. Whether it is in Maale Adumim, Efrat, or any of the many other communities, these are simply wonderful places where people live and want to raise their families.” Huckabee denounced the international media for portraying everything that happens in Yehuda and Shomron as extreme settler violence. “That is not accurate, it is not fair, and it slanders the people who live there,” he said.

Education Ministry Called Out by the Court

I don’t know much about education or about budgets; therefore, one can certainly say that I don’t know much about education budgets. But if I am correctly understanding one particular news item, I can tell you that the Ministry of Education has finally been put in its place.

The news report states that the District Court in Yerushalayim, sitting as a court for administrative affairs, recently overturned a decision of the Ministry of Education to deduct 715,612 NIS from the budget of the Pri Chochmah seminary. The seminary is a special education high school in Yerushalayim for chareidi girls with emotional and behavioral difficulties. Judge Eli Abarbanel ruled that the ministry had made the decision without providing the required justification. The Education Ministry was also ordered to pay 7000 shekels in legal expenses to the nonprofit organization that operates the seminary. The affair began with two inspections conducted by the Licensing, Supervision, and Enforcement Administration of the Ministry of Education in December 2024 and March 2025. The inspectors reported extremely poor attendance at the school; in one class in the twelfth grade, there wasn’t a single student present, and the faculty told the inspectors that the girls came to school only in the afternoon. As a result, the ministry decided to deduct the funding allocated for 14 girls in the two twelfth-grade classes, claiming that the seminary had reported their enrollment improperly.

The organization that runs the seminary, represented by Advocate Yael Tishler, whose office specializes in education law, argued that the Ministry of Education had applied the normal standard to its evaluation of attendance and had failed to take into account that it was dealing with a school for special education. Tishler also argued that the seminary had notified the ministry’s supervisor of inspections in real time about every student who had dropped out, but that government protocol made it impossible to remove students from their enrollment records until alternative placements had been found for them. The lawyer also argued that one of the twelfth-grade classes operated in the afternoons in a personalized program designed to prevent attrition and that the ministry’s supervisor had approved the program’s schedule on a telephone call. She also noted that five other students were enrolled in the seminary without receiving funding from the government, and the retroactive budget cuts would jeopardize its continued existence. The Ministry of Education argued that its decision was professional and based on two inspections.

Until this point, the story is fairly routine. Education Ministry inspectors are notorious for being too quick to pull the trigger. They will hasten to freeze or revoke funding for schools, and any complaints or appeals are ignored. The schools are generally weak, exhausted, and in distress, and they give up. They do not have the strength to fight the ministry. But this time was different. As the news report continues, “The judge ultimately accepted the appeal and determined that the ministry had explained its decision only with a general justification that appears to say everything but actually says nothing.”

After the ruling, Tishler remarked, “In recent times, the Ministry of Education has been conducting inspections in schools categorized as recognized but unofficial, including inspections of student attendance, to ensure that the funding given to these schools is being used for the designated purpose. Very often, even when the organizations behind those schools present substantial arguments and compelling evidence of their claims, the ministry still decides to deduct significant sums from their funding, sometimes even millions of shekels. Its decisions suggest that the arguments of the organizations do not receive meaningful review, and hearings are conducted merely as a formality. The importance of this ruling lies in the statement that it makes: The Ministry of Education has a duty to examine the arguments and evidence presented by the organizations and to review each argument individually and with careful consideration before reaching a final decision. It isn’t sufficient to give the organizations the opportunity to present their cases; it is also necessary for the ministry to review those cases with careful attention. A decision that does not meet this requirement will not withstand judicial review.”

The Ministry of Education responded simply, “The court ruling was received by the ministry today and is currently being studied.”

But there is no real need for the ministry to study it. Instead, what the ministry needs to do is to stop behaving like a king or dictator, to begin listening to the schools, and to stop making arbitrary and unethical budget cuts.

Of course, the chareidi schools suffer the most from this practice.

Rav Ovadiah’s Last Phone Call

I will conclude this column with a story that relates to one of the running themes of these days: the specter of persecution that looms over the Torah world.

Last week, the country marked the 13th yahrtzeit of Rav Ovadiah Yosef. I believe that if a historian decided to conduct an in-depth study of Rav Ovadiah’s decades of speeches and acts of leadership, he would discover one common thread in particular that runs throughout all of them: the determination to protect the yeshivos and botei medrash, which were so precious to Rav Ovadiah, from all harm.

This week, I asked someone to help me reconstruct the events surrounding Rav Ovadiah’s famous telephone call from his sickbed in Hadassah Hospital to Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon, when he begged the minister to do everything in his power to protect the country’s lomdei Torah. This was almost certainly the last phone call he made before he passed away.

Ariel Attias, a former government minister on behalf of the Shas party, recounted that Rav Ovadiah was lying in his hospital bed, exhausted and racked by pain. “As soon as I came into the room,” Ariel recalled, “he turned to me and asked, ‘Nu? What did you do for yeshiva bochurim today?’ His voice was almost inaudible.” Ariel Attias was leading the fight for Torah at that time. “I had been involved in the matter even during the Olmert government, but Rav Ovadiah asked me to become heavily involved in it and to take a firm stand,” he recalled. Many more chapters of this ongoing saga have unfolded since that time.

Ariel Attias is virtually a walking history book; the many chapters of this long struggle are clearly organized within his mind. He remembers the Tal Law, the extension of the law, and when the law was stuck down in 2013 (by the Supreme Court, of course). He remembers the following election and the “Brothers’ Government” led by Bennett and Lapid, and the next draft law that was brought down along with the government in 2014. The next step was the establishment of a government in which the chareidim were members, which was followed by “Amendment 21,” the law that expired in 2023. In retrospect, it is hard to believe how much the chareidi community has endured.

The phone call that I am discussing took place at the time when the chareidi parties were in the opposition during the Bennett-Lapid government. Yaalon was the minister of defense, which made him responsible for advancing the draft law that was taking shape. “They planned to enact a very aggressive law with strict quotas for Torah learners. The law would have required everyone who exceeded the quotas to join the army, and there would have been criminal sanctions,” Attias said. At that time, Ariel Attias entered Rav Ovadiah’s room in the hospital, where the gadol lay feebly on his bed. “He had been sedated and intubated prior to that,” Attias recalled. “A week before he passed away, he woke up and we believed that he would still return home and continue leading Klal Yisroel from his home. He was on dialysis and was very frail and could barely speak, and I rushed to get to his bedside as quickly as possible.”

When he entered the room, Rav Ovadiah managed to ask him, with the last dregs of his strength, what he had done for the yeshiva bochurim that day.

“I told him that it was a complicated issue,” Attias recalled. “The ball was in Yaalon’s court, even though he wasn’t the only one who would ultimately make the decision. When I said this, Rav Ovadiah replied, ‘Let me speak to him.’ I was aghast. The rov was barely able to breathe and certainly unable to talk; how did he expect to make a telephone call? I tried to dissuade him, pointing out that the doctors had instructed him to avoid exertion and they would certainly want him to refrain from becoming emotional. I knew that he had spoken to Yaalon several times in the past, and the defense minister had visited his home on multiple occasions. But despite my remonstrations, the rov insisted on speaking with him.”

Attias grew emotional as he recalled that conversation this week, despite the passage of thirteen years. “Rav Ovadiah was already halfway out of this world,” he repeated. “He was barely breathing, and the entire world was concerned about his health, but his only concern was the well-being of the lomdei Torah. Despite the massive effort that it required, he wanted to speak to the minister of defense. There wasn’t a very high likelihood that Yaalon would agree to do anything, but as far as Rav Ovadiah was concerned, any effort that he could make to promote the cause of yeshiva bochurim was worthwhile, even if the chances of success were slim.” Apparently, just as Rav Ovadiah had asked Attias what he had done for yeshiva bochurim that day, the rov made the same demand of himself: If there was something he could personally do to advance the cause, then he was required to do so.

Attias sent a message to Yaalon, and the defense minister called him back immediately. “I explained that we were in the hospital and the rov was gravely ill, but he wanted to speak to him,” Attias recalled. “The rov took the telephone, and they had a difficult conversation. It was hard to understand him, and the exchange was uncomfortable as well. ‘This is a vital issue to us,’ Rav Ovadiah said. ‘Eretz Yisroel needs the Torah world. I am begging you: Do not let the yeshiva bochurim be harmed. That zechus will support you forever.’ The rov then blessed him and asked him to do everything in his power for their benefit.”