Friday, January 30, 2026
What really Happened at the Weberman Hearing !
DIN: Tznees alert!
The hearing began with the judge stating that he would be granting the motion to vacate Weberman’s original sentence. Weberman had originally been sentenced to 103 years, but that sentence had been reduced by law to 50 years because of caps on incarceration. Weberman was then given an opportunity to address the court and his victim, who was present in court with her husband, her lawyer, friends, and advocates.
Weberman read from a prepared statement saying that he was not there to revisit the past. He said that he stood ready to take full, unconditional responsibility for the harm he caused. He said that he had misused the position of authority that was given to him and had desecrated God’s name. Turning to his victim he told her that she deserved a protector, and instead he had violated her. He told her that she had done nothing to deserved what had happened to her, that she had been an innocent child.
He then said that his time served – 13 years – had paid his debt to her, and that he stood before the court as a changed man. He pleaded to his victim, saying that he wasa truly, and deeply sorry.
The ADA, Joe Alexis, then asked Weberman to be more specific about what he was apologizing for. He asked Weberman if he accepts that his victim was 12 years old, and Weberman said he didn’t remember exactly, but that she was a child. The ADA then asked Weberman what specifically he had done to his victim. Weberman said it was sexual abuse. When asked to be more specific, Weberman bristled, saying he didn’t want to get graphic. His family was sitting in the courtroom, including two of his children.
He said that he’d been in jail for 13 years and couldn’t remember the specifics well enough to graphically say what it was, but it was sexual abuse, and that he didn’t want to think about it. The ADA asked him if he didn’t remember anything about it, and he said that he remembered what he’d said – that it was sexual abuse, but that he wouldn’t be using graphic language and it wouldn’t be true if he said it was this or that. The ADA asked him what he did remember. Weberman said “let’s call it sexual abuse.” The ADA pushed him, saying that Weberman kept saying that, but what did it specifically mean.
The next Israel-Iran war will not look like the last one
Iran’s threat to strike “the heart of Tel Aviv" should the US attack Iran sounds less like confidence than fear. It resembles a terrified animal puffing itself up to appear larger than it is. Iran desperately needs the world to believe it remains dangerous.
Tehran’s deranged mullahs are weaker-militarily, economically, diplomatically, and internally-than they have been in years.
Israel’s stunning success in its 12-Day War with Iran in 2025 stripped away long-cultivated myths of Iranian invulnerability. Israel demonstrated that it could penetrate Iran’s largely Russian air-defense systems and identify and strike key targets almost at will.
Kosher food and no women: The IDF's new guidelines for integrating Charedim
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has given final approval to the General Staff orders for the integration of haredim into the military, Channel 13 reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the orders are intended to ensure that every haredi soldier maintains the same way of life he did at home before enlisting.
Among the orders that will be incorporated into IDF regulations in some tracks: an absolute ban on women entering the base, and a ban on exposing soldiers to women.
In addition, the soldiers' commanders will only be observant, and in some tracks, there will be mandatory Torah study and prayers.
The order states that soldiers will be able to receive food in several levels of kashrut, according to the practice in their homes. They will be exempt from wearing a uniform in haredi population centers, and the customary oath of allegiance to the IDF will be replaced by a declaration of allegiance to avoid the Torah prohibition on false oaths.
In addition, an external rabbinical council will be formed to oversee the implementation of the orders.
Lapid & Bennett need Arab parties to form a government
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| Lapid & Bennett sit with the Atab MK |
The unification of the Arab parties negatively impacts Netanyahu’s opponents, who are unable to form a coalition without relying on the votes of the Joint List, according to a poll conducted by the "Mida" Institute for Channel 12 News.
The poll shows that if elections were held today, the Likud party would win 27 seats, and Naftali Bennett’s party would win 21.
The Joint List, if the Arab parties unite, would achieve 12 seats, the Democrats 11, Shas 9, Yesh Atid 8, Yisrael Beytenu 8, Otzma Yehudit 8, and United Torah Judaism 7.
The Religious Zionist Party does not pass the electoral threshold, but is close to it. Also, the Blue and White Party and the Reservists’ Party do not pass the electoral threshold.
The opposition bloc achieves 57 seats, while the coalition bloc has 51, with the Arab parties in the middle.
A union between Bennett, Yesh Atid, and Gadi Eizenkot does not bring any change to the bloc map. A joint party of the three would win 38 seats, with Likud maintaining its strength with 27 seats. In this scenario, the Joint List gets 12 seats, the Democrats 11, Shas 9, Yisrael Beytenu 8, Otzma Yehudit 8, and United Torah Judaism 7.
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Rabbinate Warns: Popular "MEHADRIN" Paraguay Beef Cuts Sold for Two Years Found Non-Kosher
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate issued an urgent kashrut warning after inspectors found a major failure in nikkur (deveining) on frozen beef imported from Paraguay, leaving prohibited fats (cheilev) in commonly sold asado products.
The concern spans multiple slaughter/production seasons over roughly two years, meaning significant quantities may already be in home freezers, butcher shops, and institutional kitchens.
Two specific products:
a premium frozen beef “asado” cut with bone under the Super Beef brand, and an asado-with-bone product marketed by Of Yerushalayim, produced in Paraguay. Consumers and retailers are instructed not to use the meat unless it is immediately corrected by a qualified menakker under kosher supervision, and to return affected product to the point of sale or through kashrut supervisors for reprocessing.
This is a halachic/kashrut compliance issue—not a food safety recall—but the Rabbinate is treating it as an urgent “stumbling block” and says distributors and mashgichim have been directed to pull and fix inventory fast.
Saudi Arabia’s Ugly Pivot Against Israel
by Dinah Bucholz
Before the war in Gaza, relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel had taken a hopeful turn, as the prospect of the Arab state joining the Abraham Accords appeared to be approaching reality.
But the Oct. 7 attack derailed that plan, which appeared to serve one of Hamas’s goals of starting the war. Still, even during the war, there was hope that Saudi Arabia would continue to soften its stance and normalize relations with Israel.
But tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have since escalated. The two countries had long enjoyed warm relations and a strong strategic partnership, but differences regarding Yemen have turned into an emerging rivalry amid increasing hostility, with Saudi Arabia demanding that the UAE withdraw from parts of Yemen, while drawing closer to Turkey and Qatar, both hostile to Israel.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia started to jack up its anti-Israel rhetoric, including anti-Jewish conspiracies, on its state-run media and its local Al-Jazeera station, as the hope for normalization with Israel receded in the rear-view mirror.
This calls into question the wisdom of the November 18 meeting between President Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (also known as MBS) about the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. It also raises doubts about the reliability of Saudi Arabia as a U.S. ally, even as Trump continues to maintain a positive and warm relationship with MBS, who serves as the country’s prime minister.
The 770 Crasher May Mot have been a Terrorist He actually wanted to convert
The man who crashed his car Wednesday night into the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway was known to have visited other Chabad houses in recent months and reportedly sought to convert to Judaism but was turned away.
Authorities said the driver claimed a mechanical problem caused the crash and that he had no terrorist intent.
Final hostage, Ran Gvili, is laid to rest
The funeral procession for slain Israeli hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, HY”D, has set off for his hometown of Meitar, where he will be buried. Thousands of Israelis and saluting police officers are standing on the sides of the road to pay their final respects.
*“I just wanted to tell you, my beloved child, that the hope you might return to us on two legs, or even one leg, gave us hope,” his mother, Talik Gvili, said in her eulogy.*
“Rani, my love, I promise you that thanks largely to you, all of Israel remembered that despite all the divisions, we are one big, strong people. Everyone is worthy of your sacrifice.”
Ran’s father, Itzik Gvili, recited Kaddish over the coffin, saluted and said,
“Here, your friends are taking you.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu to the Gvili family:
“Our souls are bound to yours. We met many times, crossing continents and seas together, including a heart-wrenching meeting with President Trump in Florida. We witnessed, up close and with deep emotion, the power of parental and sibling love. We embraced you in your pain then, and today we embrace you again-together with the entire nation-as a hero of Israel is laid to rest in his homeland."
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