Friday, August 28, 2026
Unbelievable! 12 countries condemn Israel over UNRWA center evacuation in Jerusalem Which was a Den for Terrorists
12 countries, including eight European Union members, have criticized Israel over its decision to begin dismantling a UNRWA vocational training center in Kafr Aqab, an area of eastern Jerusalem.
The statement was issued Thursday by Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. All 12 countries serve on UNRWA’s Advisory Commission.
They described Israel’s entry into and seizure of the facility as “unlawful" and reaffirmed their support for the UN agency for "Palestinian refugees".
The countries called for “immediate and full compliance with the UN obligations allowing UNRWA to carry out its mandated activities without interference," while urging Israel to “halt all disruptions" to the agency’s operations.
The joint condemnation followed an operation earlier this week involving the IDF, Israel Police and Jerusalem Municipality to evacuate the UNRWA compound in Kafr Aqab, in northern Jerusalem.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomed the operation, saying Israeli authorities were acting in accordance with legislation targeting UNRWA.
New poll delivers blow to left as Winter’s party gains ground
A new poll published Thursday evening on Israel’s Channel 14 reveals challenging numbers for Israel’s left-wing bloc while showing a notable debut for Ofer Winter’s newly launched political party.
Just three days after announcing the formation of “Amcha Yisrael” (Your People Israel), retired Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter has achieved a significant milestone: his party crosses the electoral threshold for the first time, securing four Knesset seats in the survey. (Other recent polls have credited Winter with six or even seven mandates.)
The shift marks a dramatic change from Channel 14’s initial poll conducted immediately after Winter announced his entry into politics, which showed “Amcha Yisrael” earning only 2.1% of the vote, below the 3.25% threshold required for Knesset representation. Within days of the party’s official launch, Winter has now entered the parliamentary picture, reshaping the distribution of seats.
According to the complete survey results, Likud leads with 31 seats. Yesh Atid, the centrist party led by Yair Lapid, receives 23 mandates, while the ultra-Orthodox Shas party takes 10 and the Democrats secure 9.
United Torah Judaism (representing Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox parties), Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), and the Joint List each win 7 seats. Yisrael Beiteinu earns 6 mandates, Ra’am (an Arab Islamist party) gets 5, while Religious Zionism and Winter’s “Amcha Yisrael” close the list with 4 seats each.
Several parties fall short of the electoral threshold, including Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut party at 1.7%, Beit Zioni-Miluimnikim (a reservists’ party led by Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel) at 1.1%, Blue and White at 0.4%, HaAchdut at 0.3%, and Noam at 0.3%.
When divided into political blocs, the right-wing camp reaches 63 seats, a governing majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The left-wing bloc stands at 45 mandates, while Arab parties collectively hold 12 seats.
Charedie "Pay for Slay Program": New Fund to Provide NIS 1,000 a Day to Families of Bnei Torah Held in Military Prison
Charedie steal Arab "Pay for Slay" idea and apply this to their own!
A new program known as “Prison 1000” is being established to assist the families of Bnei Torah detained by Israeli military authorities. The initiative will provide NIS 1,000 for every full day an eligible individual remains in military prison.
The fund was created with the guidance of leading dayanim and poskim as arrests of yeshiva bochurim and avreichim over draft evasion have ramped up. Its goal is to ensure that the financial strain of an arrest does not fall entirely on the family. Assistance may be used for legal fees, transportation and prison visits, as well as income lost when family members must take time off from work.
Participants will pay a maximum of NIS 1 per day when an eligible arrest takes place, along with a NIS 3 monthly administrative fee. As more people join the program, the daily cost per participant is expected to decline.
The initiative is overseen by several dayanim, including HaGaon HaRav Naftali Nussbaum Shlit”a, HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Tufik Abiezri Shlit”a, HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Meir Stern Shlit”a, HaGaon HaRav Eliyahu Pozna Shlit”a and HaGaon HaRav Tzvi Braverman Shlit”a.
The committee has sole authority to determine who qualifies for assistance and how funds are distributed.
The program applies only to unexpected arrests. Individuals who knowingly expose themselves to arrest, such as by voluntarily reporting to draft offices or police stations or attempting to cross an airport or other border crossing, are excluded from coverage.
Chareidi communities, yeshivos and kollelim are now joining the initiative, with institutions signing up together to extend coverage to their bochurim and avreichim.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
Don’t Be a Golem
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Entire Neturei Karta Family goes off the derech
Now this isn't "stam" a Neturei Karta Family! This family of 8 was from the "Cream of the Crop" of the Neturei Karta living in the most extremist places in Israel, Beit Shemesh Bet!
They were influential and leaders! The lady illustrated and wrote dozens of children books that was according to her, embedded with the most vile hatred against the State that one can imagine! Her husband orchestrated all the protests, stopping traffic, and putting everything in their path on fire.
She says that Satmar is mild compared to the group she belonged to.
Her children are now serving in the IDF and she is proud of her children and now loves her country!
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Lakewood Roish Moisad calls for Jim Crow Busing!
I was absolutely shocked to read the following in the latest issue of The Voice of Lakewood over shabbos. In the continuing saga of dysfunction of this town, funding for private busing has been slashed and one of the ways money was to be saved was via combining buses for different schools. Instead of having one bus serve one school in many different neighborhoods, there will be one bus per neighborhood for two schools combined. Many parents are very happy about this, because it means their kids commute times will be cut in half or more.
But the reaction to this by certain heads of school were shocking.
From The Voice of Lakewood (emphases mine):
…with the onset of the school year and the sharp increase in the combined routes, the complaints are rising sharply as well.
Several members of yeshivah administrations spoke with The Voice (all on condition that pseudonyms would be used) expressing varying levels of disagreement or apprehension. One supported the concept but objected to how it was implemented, another had reservations but supported it on balance, a third was sharply opposed, and another called it a “himmel geshrei.”
Yitzy, the rosh mosad of one elementary school whose routes are being combined with those of another that he feels has “very different hashkafos,” said, “We wouldn’t send to camp together or daven in the same shul. We don’t want the kids interacting on a daily basis to and from school on long bus rides, sitting together and sharing information.”
Yitzy says his talmidim come from homes with stricter standards in areas like technology and dress than the school his has been paired with, and he’s worried that “they’ll become friendly with kids that are in a very different sevivah.”
God Forbid!
Yitzy says his rabbanim have instructed him that “we cannot let our children go on these buses” and that if the combination plan goes through, he’ll have to get a final psak about how many kids from the other school the rabbanim will allow to be on a bus with their own students. And if there are more than that, Yitzy says “we might start private vans or carpooling.”
Are you shocked yet? Because sit down. It’s gonna get worse. Way worse:
Another option, he says, would be placing monitors on the buses to ensure that students from the two schools sit separately. With dozens of routes, however, that would be difficult and expensive.
What the actual!?? Bus monitors? To ensure that chas veshalom more yeshivish boys don’t sit next to boys that are slightly less yeshivish than them!?
(The LSTA says in the article that “we were very sensitive with deciding which schools to combine.” The schools that I personally know combined in our nighborhood leads me to believe this is true, and that Yitzy is representing an ultra-extreme yeshiva that is worried about a slightly less extreme one. Regardless, its certainly not Skvere Cheder riding with Yeshiva of Flatbush).
Lets imagine this playing out:
Ruvie goes to extreme yeshiva A. Lets call it “Cheder Bnei Yechidim”. Shimmy goes to slightly less extreme yeshiva B. (This Yeshiva allows 24six select.) Let’s call it “Cheder Bnei Lo Kol Kach Yechidim”. They live across the street from each other and know each other well. Ruvie is excited that he will finally be able to sit next to Shimmy on the bus. Ruvie gets on and heads to the back to sit with Shimmy. (Of course, Shimmy is in the back). But the bus monitor stops him. “Fahrshteitzich you want to sit next to your friend Shimmy that you know from the shchunah, but Rav Yanky and our yeshiva’s rabbanim hold it pas nisht. Gradeh, efsher you shouldn’t talk to him by dain hoiz either.” I’m sure both Ruvie and Shimmy are gonna feel great! (‘Yitzy’ certainly will.)
It’s absolutely insane that a Rosh Mosad - a head of a Yeshiva - would want to reimplement Jim Crow to ensure that his yeshivos’ kids won’t associate chalilah with those from the other yeshiva’s “who have different standards of dress”. (Maybe a colorful yarmulka.)
Keep in mind that buses are places of hefkeirus already (as a parent points out in the article) yet the one thing that would require bus monitors would be to stop boys from sitting together.
The article concludes:
Several people we spoke with commented that in other communities, yeshivos are much more integrated than in Lakewood, and a little less segregation here wouldn’t be a terrible thing.
Yitzy says that might be a valid broader argument, but that “the matzav today in Lakewood is that everything is separate. When you have one school very closed-minded (!!! -DY) and one open-minded, the differences can’t meet at this point.”
Methinks ‘Yitzy’ needs to watch some more Tisha Bav videos. Or listen to Incredible Kids.
Why was a monument for a Terrorist that murdered Jews allowed to remain?
Smotrich Defends Sukkot: Israel Should Have Demolished Terror Monument Long Ago*
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich defended MK Zvi Sukkot after he smashed a monument in the Palestinian village of Madama, while stressing that such monuments should ultimately be removed by the IDF.
Smotrich said Israel should have demolished the monument long ago because it honored Yaman Tayeb Ali Faraj, who was linked to dispatching the terrorist responsible for the 2003 Geha Junction bombing that killed four Israelis and wounded more than 20.
He also criticized opposition leaders for condemning Sukkot rather than focusing on Palestinian terrorism and the glorification of terrorists.
15 Minutes from Beit Shemesh ..Travel to Elah Valley to uncover the ancient Judean fortress of Azekah
For 16 years, the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition has excavated the ancient stronghold of Azekah in central Israel's Elah Valley, working to uncover one of the Kingdom of Judah's key fortresses.
i24NEWS traveled to the site and spoke with the team’s directors to learn how their work persists, and in some cases thrives, amid the ongoing conflicts around the world.
Prof. Oded Lipschits, who directs the excavation and serves as dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University, said the site's importance lies in its location on the border between the Judeans and the Philistines, and later between Judah and Israel to the north. "Anyone who wants to conquer Judah had to cross through this place," he said.
Tel Azekah is over 3,000 years old, and the team continues to make discoveries from across the millennia, including stamp impressions, weights, jewelry, game boxes, weapons, and other finds which Lipschits says tie the site directly to biblical history. It’s not just what’s above ground either. Tel Azekah maintains its own subterranean world. Underneath the large mound is a system full of caves and installations, which will be part of the team’s focus for coming excavation seasons.
"This is a really exciting thing because it's bringing the Bible back; it's bringing the Judean history of the site," Lipchits exclaimed.
A stronghold recorded in biblical and Assyrian texts
Azekah's occupation spans roughly 3,500 years, beginning in the Early Bronze Age, when the site was first settled. It became a strongly fortified, urban city during the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1550 BCE) before its destruction at the end of the Late Bronze Age. After a period of abandonment, it was resettled during the Iron II period (1000-586 BCE) and flourished as a Judean town.
The fortress’s history stretches into some of the best-known narratives of the Hebrew Bible. The book of Joshua lists the city among the towns allotted to the tribe of Judah in the western foothills, naming it alongside Eshtaol, Zorah and Jarmuth as one of "fourteen towns and their villages" (Joshua 15:33-36).
First Samuel 17 places Azekah at the staging ground for the battle between David and Goliath: "Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah” (1 Samuel 17:1)
The fortress also appears in Assyrian records. In 701 BC, King Sennacherib of Assyria recorded his campaign through Judah on the Taylor Prism after King Hezekiah refused to submit to Assyrian rule; one of the cities he claims to have destroyed was Azekah. The City was described as being “Situated upon a mountain peak. Like the blades of daggers without number, they rise high into the heavens... were well fortified and rival high mountains."
Azekah's destruction under Sennacherib was not the end of the city. Jeremiah 34:7 describes Azekah and Lachish as the only fortified cities of Judah. The city would go on to be repopulated by Greeks, Romans, Persians, and the Byzantines before it was forgotten.
Finding the forgotten fortress
The site was left forgotten until the excavations of British archaeologists F.J. Bliss and R.A.S. Macalister on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund between 1898 and 1899. Lipschits described their approach as "a very destructive method of archaeology" that damaged other sites they worked at, including Maresha and Gezer, and said it was long believed Azekah had suffered the same fate.
Time constraints forced the pair to abandon the project and backfill it, and for more than a century afterward, most archaeologists believed the site had been fully excavated.
Renewed excavations began in 2012 under Lipschits, Yuval Gadot and Heidelberg University's Manfred Oeming. Dr. Sabine Kleiman, who joined the project as a field director after three seasons as assistant supervisor at the nearby Ramat Rahel excavation, said the depth of prior work at Azekah makes it possible to date material from ceramics and even small potsherds in ways other sites do not allow.
"I can't do this on other sites. It's a big opportunity," Sabine said.
The project has since grown to include archaeologists, historians, scientists and students from Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Malta, the United Kingdom, Spain, China, Indonesia, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Fighting the learning amid war and uncertainty
But the dig has not been immune to the region's conflicts. Kleiman said the team has continued excavating every year, including during the COVID pandemic and the wars with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran that followed October 7, though it has been difficult.
"We were not able to really get a hold on good grants, which we usually would go for from abroad," Kleiman explained, noting the excavation now operates with far fewer volunteers than in past seasons.
"Usually we would have in this area 20 volunteers working," she said, describing a crew that has shrunk to two. She said she does not yet feel the strain but expects to "in the long run."
Looking toward the future
Despite the war's toll on funding and staffing, Kleiman said Azekah already draws busloads of school visitors to its lookout point to hear the story of David and Goliath, though she said they currently arrive, hear the story and leave. She said she hopes visitors will eventually be able to buy refreshments on site.
Lipschits said his dream is for visitors within about four years to walk through the citadel's high walls and inner structures and along the street surrounding the fortress, calling it a future "pearl" among Israel's archaeological sites.
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