Smotrich’s response to German Chancellor: "You won’t force us back into ghettos certainly not in our own land"

 A social media post by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz opposing what he called the “de facto annexation" of Judea and Samaria sparked a fierce confrontation on Monday evening with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Merz directly criticized the Israeli government’s policy in Judea and Samaria and revealed that he had demanded Prime Minister Netanyahu impose a ban on the “de facto annexation" of the area.

“I am deeply concerned about developments in the Palestinian territories. In my phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, I made it clear: There must be no de facto annexation of the West Bank," the German Chancellor wrote on social media.

His remarks, posted just hours before the start of Holocaust Memorial Day events, immediately provoked outrage in the Israeli political system - particularly from Smotrich, who serves as Minister of Finance, Minister in the Defense Ministry, and head of the Settlement Administration.

“On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the German Chancellor should bow his head and apologize a thousand times on behalf of Germany," Smotrich wrote. “He should not dare lecture us on how to deal with the Nazis of our generation - who murdered, raped, slaughtered, and burned women, the elderly, and children in the most horrific massacre committed against the Jewish people since the terrible Holocaust."

The minister went on to blast European leadership as a whole, claiming it has lost its moral compass and its ability to distinguish between good and evil. “We will not accept instructions from hypocritical European leaders who are once again losing their conscience and their ability to tell right from wrong.

Smotrich then addressed the Jewish people’s right to their land and delivered a firm message to the Chancellor:

 “Mr. Chancellor, the days when Germans dictated to Jews where they are allowed to live and where they are not - are over and will never return. You will not force us back into ghettos - certainly not in our own land."

He concluded by stating that the Jewish people’s return to their biblical homeland is the ultimate answer to anyone who has tried to destroy them throughout history: 

“Our return to the Land of Israel - our biblical and historic homeland - is the resounding response to all those who have tried and continue to try to destroy us. We will not apologize for it even for a moment. Am Yisrael Chai."

Antisemitic Attacks In 2025 Caused Highest Number Of Deaths In 30 Years, Study Finds

 

Rabbi Yossi Friedman speaks to people gathering at a flower memorial by the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, following Sunday's shooting in Sydney, Australia.

Last year saw the highest level of deadly violence against Jews around the world in over three decades, with 20 people killed in antisemitic attacks, according to an annual study released by Tel Aviv University on Monday.

The violence, including a deadly attack at a Chanukah celebration in Australia, continued a spike that began following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, the report’s authors said.

“The data raise concern that a high level of antisemitic incidents is becoming a normalized reality,” said Uriya Shavit, the report’s chief editor.

Deadly antisemitic attacks were recorded on three continents. Fifteen people were killed at the Chabad event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December. There were additional deaths in two antisemitic attacks in the U.S. in Washington, D.C., and Colorado; and in Britain, two people were killed at a Manchester shul on Yom Kippur.

Each year, Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights and Justice releases the report about antisemitism ahead of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The day marks a national memorial for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, which begins Monday evening.

The new report also tracked an increase in antisemitic attacks that resulted in physical harm, including beatings and stone throwing.

It found that 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks since 1994, when the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina killed 85 people and wounded more than 300. An Argentine court has blamed Iran and its Hezbollah proxy for the attack.

According to the report, there was a moderate increase in the overall number of antisemitic incidents last year compared with 2024, but that total represents a huge jump from 2022, before the war in Gaza. The report tracks incidents that range from physical attacks and vandalism to verbal threats and harassment on social media.

“The peak in the number of incidents was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, after which we began to see a downward trend — but unfortunately, that trend did not continue in 2025,” Shavit said.

In the United Kingdom, there were 3,700 antisemitic incidents in 2025, up from 3,556 in 2024. In Canada, the number of incidents grew from 6,219 in 2024 to 6,800 in 2025, a number more than three times higher than in 2022.

The report found that even after the Gaza ceasefire took effect last October, antisemitic incidents continued to rise from the same period during the previous year. In Australia, there were 588 antisemitic incidents between October and December 2025, up from 492 during the same period in 2024. There were a total of 472 antisemitic incidents across Australia during all of 2022.

Most physical attacks were carried out by people acting on their own, which is why it is so difficult to try to prevent them, according to Carl Yonker, the study’s director of research. He noted that most attacks were carried out by extremist white Christians devoted to white supremacy or radical Muslims, and often the attackers were unemployed and struggling financially.

The statistics are based on reports from police, national authorities and local Jewish communities.

Cookie Company Sues Posek for 3 Million Shekels Over Pesach Psak

 A dramatic and highly unusual fight between halacha and the legal system is taking place after a major cookie manufacturer filed a 3 million shekel lawsuit against a prominent posek, after putting out a new psak right before Pesach.

The controversy began when Rav Binyomin Chuta gave a shiur and public psak advising consumers not to eat Papushado cookies on Pesach, he argued longstanding halachic concerns regarding the products and how they are made.

The cookies, produced by Papushado, have for years been discussed in the Halacha world. While many Rabbonim allow these products, others strongly discourage eating them, due to potential issues of chametz.

However, what is typically a classic halachic debate has now exploded into something much bigger and more unusual. The company is accusing Rav Chuta of causing severe financial damage by issuing what they claim was a misleading and harmful psak at the height of the Pesach shopping season. The lawsuit argues that while Rabbonim are entitled to express halachic opinions, presenting them in a way that impacts a specific product crosses into questionable territory.

The company has points to prior Rabbonim backing for its cookies, including relying on lenient opinions associated with leading Sephardic Poskim, arguing that the cookies have long been accepted in parts of the kosher market.

Outrage as Iran Elected to U.N. Committee on Human Rights, Terrorism

The United Kingdom, along with Australia, France and Canada — and indeed, nearly the entire 54-member Economic and Social Council of the United Nations — disgraced itself by throwing its support behind Iran and voting to elect the authoritarian regime to the U.N. Committee for Program and Coordination.

The committee works on such issues as gender equality and women’s empowerment, human rights, disarmament and preventing terrorism. In a case of real life imitating satire, the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism and one of the world’s worst human rights abusers has just been elected to sit on a committee that is supposed to fight terrorism and protect human rights.

The United States stood alone in opposing the decision to seat Iran on the committee.

The decision is likely to hold because the U.N. General Assembly typically allows these votes to go through without casting its own vote on the issue.

The decision drew immediate fire from critics, who pointed out that last year, Iran executed an average of four people every day and tramples on the human rights of women and minorities.

If the regime “survives the current crisis, there is a serious risk that executions will be used even more extensively as a tool of oppression and repression,” said Iran Human Rights (based in Norway) and Together Against the Death Penalty (based in Paris) in a joint report on last year’s executions.

Amnesty International said that women and minorities face “systemic discrimination and violence.” The group added, “Authorities intensified their crackdown on women who defied compulsory veiling laws, the Baha’i community, and Afghan refugees and migrants. Thousands were arbitrarily detained, interrogated, harassed and/or unjustly prosecuted for exercising their human rights.”

Amnesty also said that the Iranian authorities applied the death penalty “arbitrarily.”

Zac Goldsmith, a Conservative member of the House of Lords, blasted his country for the decision, calling it “mind boggling.”

“On every international issue this U.K. government has not only made the wrong call – it has made a catastrophically wrong call,” he said.

“Actively voting to put Iran on a U.N. committee responsible for tackling gender equality and empowerment of women, disarmament, human rights, terrorism prevention … It is actually mind-boggling,” he added.

In his blistering condemnation, Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, said the vote could have gone differently, as it had with Russia.

“By their cynical actions at the U.N., major Western states have betrayed their own human rights principles, severely undermining the ruled-based international order that they claim to support,” he said.

“We note that Western states did take action in recent years to stop Russia from getting elected to similar … bodies, and we deeply regret that they failed to do the same now to stop the election of serial violators such as Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia and Sudan,” he added.

Cory Booker talks about "Yad Hashem"

 

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The persistent myth of Al-Aqsa “In Danger" Started with the Mufti in 1929 to trigger riots

 

The Palestinian Authority (PA) never wastes an opportunity to foment incitement against Israel. 

Since the US and Israel launched a military campaign against the Iranian regime on February 28, 2026, Israel initiated a nationwide state of emergency prohibiting mass gatherings at all major religious places of worship, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, citing the risk of retaliatory missile strikes in densely populated areas.

This emergency closure provided the PA with a convenient excuse to formally denounce the suspension of access to the site, claiming it prevented Muslims from fulfilling religious obligations during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr for the first time since 1967.

The Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA) accused the “Temple extremist Israeli groups" of initiating a campaign to perform animal sacrifices at Al-Aqsa during Passover by using AI-generated images and videos on their websites to marshal their supporters. What WAFA failed to report is that Israeli police have unfailingly apprehended and taken into custody anyone attempting to bring animals into the vicinity in order to preclude any conflict.

“Al-Aqsa is in Danger"

Millions of Jews will Observe Yom HaShoah

 

AMBASSADOR HUCKABEE

As Yom HaShoah begins this evening, we remember the six million Jewish men, women, and children murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust, the systematic attempt to annihilate the Jewish people from the face of the earth.

New developments in the investigation in the death of Bnei-Brak Eviatar Zarzar : The suspicion - he was kidnapped and murdered

New details were revealed today (Monday) in the case of the murder of the late Eviatar Azzar from Bnei Brak, whose body was found in 2019 in a pit in the area of the Morasha Junction. According to a report by the head of i24NEWS's criminal desk, Lee Ayish, there is a suspicion of kidnapping and premeditated murder, and three suspects have been arrested as part of the ongoing investigation.

One of the suspects who was arrested, a 32-year-old man from Bnei Brak, had previously testified during the interrogation and was released. Now that he has been re-arrested, he has chosen to maintain his right to remain silent, claiming that "I don't trust the police." His detention was extended by a week, and the police are expected to request an extension of the detention of the other two suspects.

According to the suspicion, the three suspects worked together in planning and committing the murder. One of them is currently serving a 24-year sentence for the murder of Michael Miller, who was killed in a hotel in Tel Aviv. Investigators believe that the three kidnapped the late Zarzar and murdered him, but the exact details of the investigation are being kept secret.

As you may recall, the shocking affair began at the end of 2019, when the late Evyatar, 18, a young man from a well-known ultra-Orthodox family in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem, who lived in Bnei Brak at the time, disappeared.

 For about three weeks, extensive searches were conducted, with his family and father, Rabbi Eliyahu Zarzar, head of the Daat Hochma Yeshiva, making excited calls to the public and his friends from the yeshivot in an attempt to locate every lead.

The hope of bringing him back alive was dashed on December 27, 2019, on the eve of Shabbat Hanukkah, when his body was found in a pit in an open area near the Morasha junction and the cemetery in Ramat Hasharon. Signs of violence were found on the body, and the harsh findings shocked the entire ultra-Orthodox public.

The family said at the time that the late Evyatar "was taken from his loving family by a man above me... And that's enough to understand." The funeral procession took place without eulogies due to the days of Hanukkah and the fact that it was Rosh Chodesh, and he was buried on the Har Hamnuchot in Jerusalem with the participation of his family and friends.

As part of the investigation conducted by the Central Unit of the Tel Aviv District of the Police, a variety of investigative actions and great efforts were made in order to decipher the case and reach the truth. The investigation was subject to a severe gag order, which was extended many times – most recently for 180 days, in a step that was considered unusual due to the length of time.

It should be noted that about three weeks before the body was found, the police received a report that gunshots had been heard in the area of the Morasha junction, but an examination conducted did not yield any findings. Now, as part of the renewed investigation, this detail is also being examined as part of an attempt to reconstruct the chain of events.

Trump brilliantly calls Iran’s bluff — with his own Strait of Hormuz blockade

 

Whoever’s calling the shots in Iran wasted yet another chance for peace over the weekend, and now President Donald Trump will again call Tehran’s bluff.

Iran’s negotiators refused to satisfy America’s demands Saturday in talks in Pakistan, as regime leaders bet that playing the Strait of Hormuz card would get Trump to blink.

Instead, he played it right back at them — announcing his own blockade, so that Iran’s oil exports (which had continued despite the war) will also be blocked.

The prez is thinking outside the box with this blockade and his plans to escort ships through the Strait; if necessary, he can later order US forces to take Kharg Island and eviscerate the regime’s power base.

This also guarantees that Tehran’s effort to charge a toll on all tankers crossing the Strait will fail — honoring an American commitment to freedom of the seas that goes back to President Thomas Jefferson, the Barbary Pirates and the US Marines’ triumphant excursion “to the shores of Tripoli.”

Of course Iran’s rulers (whoever they are at this point) responded with fresh bluster, vowing a “strong and forceful response” to Trump’s move and huffing that it would end the cease-fire.

Utter bull: Tehran has almost no offensive capabilities left except those that threaten Strait shipping, and those assets can now be eliminated as completely and readily as the rest of its Navy, missile launchers and drone capabilities already were.

It can’t seriously mine the Strait without choking off its own exports, nor can that blockade last once America and its allies’ minesweepers, backed by the US Navy, get down to work.

Trump’s blockade won’t much impact Europe or the Americas, while our Middle Eastern allies are switching to export routes that don’t rely on the Strait; it’s Iran and its allies (mainly China) that will now suffer most.

Beijing and its dependents in Moscow will soon regret vetoing the UN Security Council measure to reopen the Strait.

Meanwhile, the Iranian hardliners behind this lunacy will face more internal pressure from other regime factions; everything they’ve tried to do has blown up in their faces.

They assumed America would be help captive by conventional wisdom; our president proved them wrong.

Trump once again tried to reach a peaceful settlement; the Iranians again refused: Now they’ll pay yet a higher price for thinking they could get him to chicken out.

Rabbi urges Charedi participation in Holocaust Remembrance Day

 Rabbi David Leibel has called on the Charedi public to change its approach to Holocaust Remembrance Day and take an active part in it.

In an article published in the Achvata journal of the "Achvat Torah" network, Rabbi Leibel argued that changes in the character of the day require renewed consideration.

"In the past, this day was tied to an ethos of heroism and rebellion," he wrote. "Over the years, it has become a day of simple mourning for the six million. This change requires us to reexamine how we participate."

Explaining the difficulty felt by the broader public, he added, "Holocaust Remembrance Day is one of the more complex issues in our relationship with the secular public, which sometimes feels that we are alienated from the memory of the victims and struggles to understand why."

The first reason, Rabbi Leibel noted, is halakhic, or related to Jewish law: "It is difficult to establish days of mourning in the month of Nissan, during which eulogies and fasting are forbidden. For this reason, the Chief Rabbinate rejected the date of the 27th of Nissan even before the establishment of the State, and instead set [Holocaust Memorial Day for] the 10th of Tevet."

The second reason, he said, relates to identity: "The Charedi public uses strategies of conservatism and differentiation to cope with secularization. Establishing special [commemorative] days falls under the authority of Torah sages, and they determined that in our time there is no need for this."

However, in Rabbi Leibel's view, the time has come to reconsider.

He explained, "Over the years, the way the Holocaust is perceived has changed, even within the Zionist establishment. The public has abandoned the founders’ original intention. Today it is a day of simple pain over the six million, not a celebration of physical heroism."

"It is not wise to cling to old customs simply because that is how we acted in the past, without examining what is happening around us. There are valid foundations for resistance, but after we have firmly established our distinct identity, perhaps it is no longer appropriate that a large part of the nation is engaged in mourning and remembering millions of murdered Jews, while we appear as if it does not concern us."

Instead, Rabbi Leibel suggested, "It is possible to find ways to participate without compromising halakha or differentiation. Whether through reciting Psalms or other means - the main thing is to express solidarity with the rest of the nation, so they understand that we are part of them and that this pain belongs to us as well."