Friday, February 6, 2026
Schumer rejects offer to unfreeze $16B for Gateway tunnel Because He refuses to rename Penn Station and Dulles Airport after Trump
Cryi'n Schumer would rather the Gateway Tunnel never be built then to G-d Forbid name it after Trump!
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rejected an offer from President Trump last month to release $16 billion in federal funds for the Gateway tunnel project in exchange for backing the renaming of New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport after him.
Schumer reportedly told the president that he didn’t have the power to deliver on the unusual request, according to CNN.
The Trump administration made the ask as part of continuing talks to release funds earmarked for the massive Hudson River rail tunnel project that would connect New York and New Jersey, a source with knowledge of the discussion told The Post.
Schumer huddled with Trump at the White House on Jan. 15 to discuss the Gateway tunnel project. It’s unclear if the president made the offer to the senator during that meeting.
The Senate minority leader “emphasized the urgent need to promptly release the already-secured funds for the Gateway Program — the most important infrastructure project in the nation employing thousands of workers and vital to New York and the entire Northeast economy” during the meeting, his office said at the time.
Trump froze a combined $18 billion in funding for the Gateway tunnel and New York’s Second Avenue subway project last October – on the first day of the Schumer-led government shutdown, during which Democrats held up federal funding for a record 43 days.
New York, New Jersey and the Gateway Development Commission are suing the Trump administration over the freeze, arguing the withholding of the funds is unlawful and a breach of contract.
The funds were approved by the federal government in 2021 and construction on the tunnel began in 2023. It’s not expected to be completed until 2035.
A line of credit used to keep work going on the tunnel amid the funding freeze will run dry on Friday and construction will come to a total halt, according to the New Jersey Monitor.
“It is critical to the region, it’s critical to jobs, it’s critical to the economy. That’s why we’re fighting,” New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill told reporters Wednesday. “Let me be clear: This is a political decision by the president to cancel money that’s already in a pot being ready to be put to work.”
The prospect of renaming Penn Station after Trump first arose last April, when the Department of Transportation took over a project to renovate the transit hub and New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated she’d be fine calling it “Trump Station” when completed.
House Republicans have also previously introduced legislation that would rename Northern Virginia’s Washington Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport.
Qatar represents the Jeffrey Epstein of world politics
U.S. President Donald Trump is an arch pragmatist. His “art of the deal" is based on beating down the other side through negotiations in which he plays a superior hand.
This approach characterizes his foreign policy. Over both Iran and Gaza, however, it’s currently threatening to derail his intention to restore respect for American power-not to mention his much-desired legacy as the world’s principal peacemaker.
At the time of writing, a negotiation process still seems to be underway between the United States and the Iranian regime as an alternative to war. Trump’s terms include the regime giving up its nuclear program, ballistic missiles and sponsorship of terrorism-a demand for nothing less than surrender, to which the regime will never agree.
If Trump attacks Iran, we’ll finally know that he realizes that deal-making among nations has its limits. The fact that he keeps being persuaded to continue with these talks, however reluctantly, has created fears that he’s being played by the world’s supreme masters of tactical concessions, delay and manipulation.
In Gaza, where Trump prevented Israel from finishing off Hamas and forced the Israelis into a negotiated ceasefire, Hamas has regrouped and strengthened, daily breaking the ceasefire by attacking Israeli troops.
“Hold Back the Forces”: Newly Revealed Documents Show How Badly Israeli Intel Botched The Oct. 7 Attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has released new internal records from the weeks leading up to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, revealing senior defense officials repeatedly described the Gaza front as “stable” and urged restraint, even as the country stood on the brink of its deadliest security failure.
The documents, published as part of Netanyahu’s response to a state inquiry, were submitted to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman on Dec. 25, 2025, and were made public on Thursday. They form part of the prime minister’s effort to shift responsibility for the Oct. 7 collapse toward Israel’s military and intelligence leadership.
Among the most striking revelations is a transcript from a Sept. 12, 2023, cabinet meeting, less than a month before the Hamas invasion. In that session, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant described the security situation in Gaza as “stable” and urged Israel to “hold back its forces” against Hamas.
Gallant, who was later fired by Netanyahu during the war, also pushed for a long-term arrangement with Hamas to preserve calm along the border.
The document shows that senior officials were convinced that deterrence and limited engagement were working and that escalation should be avoided.
Thursday, February 5, 2026
Israel can never repay its debt to the tatzpitaniyot
There are many images burned into the Israeli consciousness from October 7. One of the most painful is the fate of the IDF surveillance soldiers—the tatzpitaniyot.
Mostly eighteen and nineteen years old, these young women were tasked with watching Hamas. They saw the preparations and warned their superiors—and were promptly ignored. When Hamas stormed their bases on October 7, they paid the price for the IDF’s failure. Fifteen were murdered. Seven were kidnapped. All were eventually returned to Israel alive—except one. Corporal Noa Marciano’s body was recovered by the IDF in November 2023. An autopsy determined that she had been wounded during an IDF strike on the apartment where she was being held. Her captor was killed in the strike, and Marciano was rushed to al-Shifa Hospital. There, she encountered Muhammad al-Habil—a doctor by day, and a Hamas commander by night. Faced with a wounded Israeli hostage, he made a choice to abandon humanity. Sensitive readers may wish to skip what happened next. According to Marciano’s father, there exists a video showing the medical professional at al-Shifa deliberately killing his wounded daughter—injecting air into her veins—while she begged for her life. I recount it for one reason: yesterday, the doctor of death, Muhammad al-Habil was eliminated by an IDF strike in response to repeated violations of the ceasefire. Israel can never repay its debt to the tatzpitaniyot—for what they warned, how they were ignored, and for how they were abandoned. But the elimination of those who tormented and murdered them is the least it can do.
Mamdani health officials’ ‘oppression’ obsession: Attack Israel and Jews
This is Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s New York: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene workers are assembling on the taxpayer’s dime to attack the nation of Israel.
The grossly antisemitic “Global Oppression and Public Health Working Group,” which held its first meeting Tuesday, is an outrage that demands swift action from Mamdani — but will he?
Held in the middle of the workday at department headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, as well as remotely, the government-sponsored hate fest featured speakers who accused Israeli forces of committing “genocide’’ against Palestinians.
One presenter, Hunter College professor Weeam Hammoudeh, a committee member for the Palestine Global Mental Health Network, displayed not only vicious bias but willful ignorance of the Jewish state.
In this word salad captured on video, she proclaimed, “So Palestinian citizens of Israel are citizens but they’re not considered nationals of the state so they’re more restricted in terms of the areas that they can live in and then some jobs and other opportunities also require military service, and that creates another set of sort of disparities in outcomes.”
It’s a bald-faced lie.
Israel’s Muslim citizens not only enjoy the same civil rights, employment and wages as Jewish Israelis, they can vote and hold public office.
But speakers at this disgraceful conference neglected to mention not only these facts, they ignored the massacre of more than 1,200 Jews on Oct. 7, 2023. Not one mention was made during the more than hour-long conference of terrorists who murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped Jews, sparking Israel’s self-defensive war in Gaza.
The name Hamas was not uttered at all.
And what does libeling another country have to do with the Health Department’s mandate to protect the health of New Yorkers from illness, from the flu to HIV?
Absolutely nothing.
Speakers, who seemed hand-picked for their hatred of Israel and contempt for the Jewish people were introduced by Sarah McKenney, a director of operations for the rapid response team at the DOHMH, and one of the organizers of the disgraceful event.
Mayor Mamdani is a longtime basher of Israel who’s surrounded himself with Jew haters and bandies about the term “genocide.’’ Lately, however, he’s vowed to protect Jewish New Yorkers from the often violent acts of antisemitism unleashed on streets, Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues throughout Gotham.
It’s time he put his money where his mouth is.
If Hizzoner wants to prove he represents all people of this city and cares if residents live or die, he’ll immediately disband this disgraceful working group and put its ringleaders on notice that their jobs are at risk if they refuse.
Be careful what you say about Israel
G-d will tolerate many things from His servants. Becoming a prosecutor of Israel is not one of them.
The Haftorah for Parshat Yitro (Isaiah 6:1-7:6 according to the Ashkenazi custom) is majestic and awe-inspiring yet also somewhat unsettling. Isaiah beholds a vision of G-d enthroned in glory, attended by Seraphim, a type of angel, who proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the entire world is filled with His glory" (6:3).
The foundations tremble. Smoke fills the Temple. Heaven itself seems to shake.
And then something unexpected happens.
Isaiah does not rejoice. He recoils.
“Woe is me, for I am undone," he cries, “for I am a man of impure lips, and I dwell among a people of impure lips" (6:5).
At that moment, one of the Seraphim flies toward him, holding a glowing coal taken from the altar, and touches Isaiah’s lips. The angel declares that his sin has been removed and his iniquity atoned for.
Why the lips? Why fire? And why this searing act at the very moment Isaiah is being called to prophesy?
Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105), cites the Midrash Tanchuma and says that Isaiah was punished for indicting the Jewish people. It was acceptable for Isaiah to say, “I am a man of impure lips." What crossed the line was adding, “I dwell among a people of impure lips." That judgment, Rashi explains, was not his to make. A prophet may rebuke Israel. He may warn, exhort and admonish. But he may not speak with contempt.
And so G-d responds. Not with words, but with fire.
Speech is the instrument of prophecy, and Isaiah’s speech required correction before it could be entrusted with Divine truth. The mouth that would soon carry G-d’s message to kings and nations had first to be purified of any hint of disdain for its own people.
Belzer Tzadik Elimelech Stern Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Spying for Iran
The Jerusalem District Court on Thursday sentenced Elimelech Stern to three years in prison after he was convicted of maintaining contact with a foreign agent and conspiring to carry out threats.
The court's verdict presented evidence that Stern, operating under Iranian guidance, carried out various tasks within Israel, recruiting other citizens for national security missions in exchange for payment in digital currency.
Among the tasks Stern performed were printing security-related flyers, collecting mobile phones, and transferring money in public spaces.
Stern's initial suspicion about the identity of the agent he was working with grew more serious as the missions took on a more prominent security nature. However, he did not cooperate with the authorities and stalled legal proceedings throughout the process.
The Prosecutor's Office emphasized the severity of Stern's crimes, stressing that they posed a tangible threat to national security and disrupted civilian life.
Additionally, the Prosecutor's Office noted the broader phenomenon of foreign agents operating within Israel, under clear Iranian influence, and requested a harsh sentence to deter and prevent similar cases in the future.
The defense argued that Stern was not fully aware of the agent's intentions, but the court determined that a deterrent sentence was necessary to prevent similar actions in the future.
Satmar to set up a community in north Israel
For the first time in the history of the Chasidic movement, a group of dozens yeshiva students from the Satmar Hasidic community is leaving Bnei Brak and establishing a community on Har Yona in Nof HaGalil.
The organized move, led by yeshiva head Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Meislish, marks a shift in the settlement policy of one of Israel’s largest Hasidic groups.
At a recent conference, Rabbi Meislish acknowledged the challenge of leaving long-established residential centers, while emphasizing the potential of the move. He said that despite the difficulty of physical distance, it offers opportunities for a more balanced lifestyle, stronger family life, and calmer family-building.
Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Yozshef, CEO of the institutions, stressed that this is a planned initiative rather than a private effort. Planning for educational institutions is advanced, alongside work to establish a synagogue as a community hub.
Housing details presented included high-quality apartments with open views and an expected occupancy within about 14 months, offering a more accessible alternative to projects in Haredi urban centers.
Rabbi Eliezer Biller, the project’s entrepreneur, said the goal is to create a complete framework for community life, including education, spirituality, and family resilience.
The new community joins other Hasidic groups already established in the city, including Toldos Aharon Yitzchak, reflecting a broader trend in Hasidic housing patterns in Israel.
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