Bereaved Beit Shemesh mother: Moishy's legacy is - don't give up, look at what unites us

Miriam Noll's son, Staff Sergeant Moshe Shmuel Noll, a soldier in the haredi Netzah Yehuda Battalion, fell in battle last week when an explosive device detonated in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza. In a conversation with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, Miriam spoke about her son and his incredible energy and character.

"Moishy went straight from crawling to running. He never sat still. I guess he had a lot to pack into his very short life. He was constantly on the move," the mother reflects.

With this energy, though, Moshe was afflicted by severe learning disabilities. Despite these disabilities, which included dyslexia, he battled to succeed: "He made it his business to learn how to read, and he took full advantage of the help he was given. He started with children's comic books, and he worked his way until he could read a full children's book. At prayers, he only knew what he would memorize. For his bar mitzvah, it took six months for him to memorize his Maftir (Torah reading). He worked with a teacher to learn week by week, a little bit more, and a little bit more, so by the time he graduated high school, he knew the entire morning prayer by heart."

As opposed to many in the haredi community, Moshe enlisted in the IDF; Miriam explains the process and decision: "The special yeshiva where Moshe studied is for boys who can't sit and learn, it's called Kfar Zeitim, and the program there is that the boys who graduate go straight to Netzah Yehuda. So he went with five of his friends to the army."

She noted that while she tried to convince him to enlist in a non-combat unit, he always responded: "I might not be good at reading or writing, but this I can do. Somebody needs to defend our country, and I am proud to do it. I am not a quitter, and I'm going to serve my country, the full term. I'm happy to be doing it." She shares that they saw this as a great "kiddush Hashem" - a sanctification of G-d's name, since "he used the skills he was given to serve his people and to serve Hashem in the way he was gifted to."

Miriam added that, as sad as they are about his loss, they celebrate his life and his dedication. "If this is the number of years that G-d has allotted to him, we are very proud that he went out fighting for his people."

She reminisced that while he may not have been booksmart, Moshe knew how to connect with everyone. "He looked for things that connected him to everyone around him, not what separated him. If you ask every one of my children, he was their best friend. He knew how to meld with anyone he was with. We're going to miss that warm, welcoming, listening ear, he gave the best bear hugs in the world, and it's going to be very hard for our family to continue without him."

Moshe's mother shares two lessons that she thinks everyone should learn from him, the first: "Don't let difficulties define you. With Hashem, you'll be able to overcome. Once his teacher asked him: 'I'm shocked at how difficult it is for you to read, why aren't you unhappy, why aren't you depressed?' He replied: 'It's enough of a challenge for me to tackle the reading, do I need to add depression on top of it?' He was happy, despite the difficulties. As long as he was making progress and working on getting better, he was happy; he knew he was doing what he could and fulfilling his role."

The second message that Miriam wants everyone to learn from Moshe is one of unity: "Let's look at what unites us, not what divides us. He saw everyone as one big family, and I think it's very important for everyone to have that unity in order to defeat that enemy."

Huckabee threatens to declare Israel not welcoming Christians, as visa row blows open

 

Moshe Arbel

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has threatened to publicly declare that Israel no longer welcomes Christian groups to Israel over what he said was Jerusalem’s failure to approve tourist visas for evangelical missions.

The threat was issued in a letter that Huckabee sent on Wednesday to Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, which was leaked to Hebrew media on Thursday. Arbel pushed back on the allegations in a response letter that was obtained by The Times of Israel.

Huckabee in his letter threatened to order his embassy to take reciprocal measures against Israeli tourists seeking visas to enter the US.

Given Huckabee’s longstanding support for Israel and close ties with the current government in particular, the rhetoric in his letter represented a shockingly quick deterioration.

But the issue at hand — the ability of Christian groups to tour Israel — is close to Huckabee’s heart, given that he has led countless such trips as an evangelical pastor over the past half a century.

The back-and-forth letters came almost two months after Huckabee and Arbel met on May 27 to discuss problems encountered by Christian Zionists seeking to visit Israel.

“It is with great distress that I express to you my profound disappointment [that the] meeting held in your office has not resulted in what I had hoped to be [the start] of a resolution of the issue of routine granting of visas for Christian organizations,” Huckabee wrote in the letter, which was partially shown on Channel 12’s broadcast.

According to the Ynet news site, Huckabee wrote to Arbel that at the start of 2025, the Interior Ministry launched investigations into several evangelical Christian organizations with long ties to Israel, including the Baptist Conference in Israel and the Christian Missionary Alliance.

Huckabee informed Arbel that these organizations were required to complete lengthy questionnaires and that they had still not received new visas for religious leaders to travel to Israel, despite submitting their applications at the beginning of the year.

Chareidim Are Now Those that Are Fighting "AGAINST THE TORAH" .... The Huge Scandal !!

 

On Monday evening, the United Torah Judaism party, which consists of Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah, quit the Netanyahu government over its proposed Chareidi conscription bill. 

As formulated by Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, the bill failed to satisfy the demands of the two factions of United Torah Judaism.

Last night, the Shas party decided to withdraw from the government for the same reason; ministers from Shas handed in their resignations today.

Edelstein has kept his cards close to his vest, so we don’t actually know the details of his proposed legislation. 

But spokesmen from UTJ have openly explained the aspects of the bill that they find problematic, and from their objections, we can discover at least some details of the Edelstein bill.

As reported by Sam Sokol in the Times of Israel, one of the objections voiced by UTJ is the requirement

that yeshiva students who receive military exemptions sign in and out of their yeshivot using a fingerprint scanner. 

Apparently, the idea that students who attend yeshiva would be forced to actually attend yeshiva is unacceptable to the Chareidi politicians in the Knesset!

Let’s take a step back. 

The official reason that the Chareidi parties demand exemptions from the army for yeshiva students is the claim that their Torah study is equivalent to military service.

 Most authorities in the Chareidi world argue that yeshiva study protects the Jewish people from physical harm as much or more than the actions of the IDF; drafting them into the Israeli army would only hurt Israel’s ability to defend itself. 

Others may acknowledge that while the physical protection afforded by Torah learning can be debated, the spiritual needs of the Jewish people require the constant study of thousands of yeshiva students, even at the expense of creating a greater burden upon other sectors of the population to serve longer in the army.

 And there’s a third group which openly fears for the spiritual welfare of Chareidi soldiers, and believes that all Chareidim, regardless of whether they attend a yeshiva, should receive military exemptions.

For the sake of argument, however, let’s work within the Chareidi mindset.

 Let’s assume for now that the Chareidi leaders who demand exemptions from the army truly believe that Torah study is a valid replacement for military service.

We also know that every rabbinic leader in the Chareidi world believes that Torah study - whether or not it provides physical or spiritual protection for the people of Israel - should be maximized. 

They would unquestionably argue that those who do not serve in the IDF should use that exemption in order to study Torah to the greatest degree possible. Even those who want all Chareidim - even those who are not studying in yeshiva - to be exempt from the army would acknowledge that their mandatory yeshiva attendance would be a net positive.

Why, then, would representatives from United Torah Judaism publicly admit that they are bothered by the idea of a fingerprint scanner, and that this was one of the factors that convinced them to withdraw from the current government?

The use of this device would force those who receive military exemptions because they are enrolled in yeshiva to, in fact, attend yeshiva. It might even force them to study for three sedarim a day - a development which every Chareidi leader should obviously encourage.

It is mind boggling that Chareidi political leaders simultaneously claim that yeshiva study is a valid replacement for IDF service, and assert that enforcing yeshiva study is beyond the pale and a reason to reject the impending legislation.

It only makes sense if we acknowledge the open secret of the Chareidi world: 

namely, that there are countless yeshiva “students” who, in fact, barely spend any time in yeshiva. They are officially enrolled while concurrently working off the books, or attending trade schools, or doing nothing at all.

This farcical situation involves numerous Torah prohibitions. 

These supposed students are forced to lie, falsely testifying that they are yeshiva students on official government documents.

 Many of the institutions steal government money, as the yeshivot receive government funds based on the number of students who are officially enrolled. (The pseudo-students who receive kollel stipends from the government are stealing, as well.) 

Those who work while legally attending yeshiva inevitably cheat on their taxes, as they cannot acknowledge that they are earning money when they are supposedly spending their days within the four walls of the beit midrash. And this is before we even get to the problem of bitul Torah, when people who are enrolled in yeshiva choose to do something else instead.

This is a scandal, and all of us are literally paying for it. A marvelous way to stop it is to institute an enforcement mechanism. Something like a fingerprint scanner.

Yet that very point was one of the reasons that UTJ quit the coalition.

So let’s get this straight. 

The Chareidi parties claim that Torah study is a valid replacement for service in the IDF. Every Chareidi rabbi wants the Chareidi public to learn Torah as much as possible. They should all celebrate the introduction of a fingerprint scanner: it will force the Chareidi public, which claims to be learning in yeshiva, to actually learn in yeshiva. It can put an end to the fraud, the thievery, and the lying. It would be the government’s gift to the Chareidi public. If it were legislated, the amount of Torah learning would rise to unprecedented heights.

Instead, it was a thorn in UTJ’s side that helped convince it to quit the government.

The next time we hear about the “war against Torah,” we should remind those who use this misguided term that the war against Torah is literally being fought by the Chareidi politicians themselves.

by Scott Kahn 

Williamsburg Hatzalah Member, Levy Steinberg, Admits he raped a Woman

Levy Steinberg pleaded guilty today to one count of forcible touching in his sexual abuse case.

Steinberg had been charged with rape in the third degree, forcible touching, and sexual misconduct after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Williamsburg.

In exchange for his plea, Steinberg was ordered to attend a 26 week program and was ordered to comply with a 5 year order of protection in favor of his victim.

If he fails to comply with the program and order of protection he faces a year in jail.

Antisemitic elements taking over GOP

 

Conservative media giant Glenn Beck warns the antisemitic elements are rapidly gaining a foothold on the American Right, presaging “return of the hatreds of Germany in the 1930s” – this time in the US.

ICC rejects Israel's bid to annul Netanyahu, Gallant arrest warrants

 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced Wednesday its rejection of Israel’s request to withdraw or vacate the arrest warrants sought for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, JNS reports.

The court also dismissed Israel’s separate plea to suspend its investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza. Israel had argued for a suspension until the court first settles the question of its jurisdiction, citing its non-party status to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC.

In a decision published by its pre-trial chamber on Wednesday, the court asserted, “There is no legal basis for withdrawing, vacating or declaring them of no force or effect at this point in time.”

The chamber further clarified, “The impact of Israel’s jurisdiction challenge on the warrants, if any, is something that can only be determined when the chamber will have ruled on the substance thereof.”

This ruling comes despite an April decision by the ICC Appeals Chamber mandating the pre-trial chamber to review Israel’s challenge to the court’s jurisdiction. Israel has maintained that the ICC has not definitively proven its jurisdiction, thereby rendering the arrest warrants illegal.

The pre-trial chamber, however, stated in its latest ruling that the mere act of reviewing their prior decision does not invalidate the warrants.

The ICC’s actions stem from allegations of “genocide” and other crimes against humanity brought by South Africa against Israel. These accusations arise from the Jewish state’s ongoing military efforts in the Gaza Strip, aimed at defeating Hamas following the terror group’s brutal massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Trump administration last month imposed sanctions on four judges at the ICC over what it called the court’s “illegitimate actions” targeting the United States and Israel.

In February, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC.

A week later, the US announced it had added Karim Khan, the ICC Chief Prosecutor, to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, actively sanctioning him and freezing all his assets in the US.

In Europe, there have been differing interpretations among countries on how to handle the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has indicated a fundamental willingness to permit Netanyahu to visit Germany despite the warrant.

France has stated that Netanyahu has immunity from ICC actions because Israel has not ratified the court’s statutes. Similarly, Italy has argued that arresting Netanyahu would not be feasible while he remains in office as Israel's Prime Minister.

Hungary denounced the ICC arrest warrant and later announced that it would withdraw from the ICC altogether.

In Historic Decision, Mearas Ha'Machpela To Return To Jewish Jurisdiction

 In a historic move a major change to the long-standing status quo at Mearas Hamachpela (Cave of the Patriarchs) has been approved. The authority over the site has been transferred from the Palestinian Hebron Municipality to the Kiryat Arba-Hebron Religious Council, under the direction of the Civil Administration. The goal is to advance structural changes at the compound, according to a Yisrael Hayom report.

This is the first time that such significant changes will be made to the Cave of the Patriarchs since the Shamgar Committee’s decisions in 1994.

“Jewish New York is finished It’s only a question of when the lights get turned out.”

 

In the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, renowned Democratic strategist Dr. Hank Sheinkopf is sounding the alarm, calling the result a “political earthquake” with potentially dire consequences for the city and its Jewish community.

In a candid interview with Alan Skorski, Sheinkopf—who has advised over 700 political campaigns globally and was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal article “Can Anyone Stop Zohran Mamdani?”—warned that Mamdani’s platform, rhetoric, and ideology represent a fundamental threat to the values and institutions of New York City.

“Mamdani is not a Democrat,” said Sheinkopf. “He’s a socialist with millions of dollars trying to hijack a bankrupt Democratic Party that now stands for nothing.”

Background on why Israel is bombing Syria

 

🧵Some background on why Israel is bombing Syria, where the Druze fit into the story, and what it means for Israel-Syria normalisation.

——

The likelihood of Israel normalizing relations with Syria has taken a hit following the murder of Syrian Druze by Ahmed al-Shara’s… pic.twitter.com/2ESkLDrvci

— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) July 16, 2025

BREAKING:

Powerful Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian Presidential Palace and the Syrian General Staff HQ in Damascus pic.twitter.com/yxE0VfJExl

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 16, 2025

Unprecedented: US Amb. Huckabee heads to court to support Netanyahu holding a Bugs Bunny Doll!

Photo Of The Year: U.S. Ambassador Holds Bugs Bunny Doll In Israeli Court While Backing Netanyahu

Inside the Tel Aviv District Court, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel was spotted with a Bugs Bunny doll — in a show of support for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is accused in trial for accepting a bigs bunny doll for his son decades ago as a bribe, Huckabee is mocking the proceedings! 

In the video below a Haaretz Reporter asks Huckabee "why are you here?'

Huckabee answers " To see the trial, why are you here?" LOL

 Today (Wednesday), US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will make a rare appearance at the Tel Aviv District Court, where Prime Minister Netanyahu is testifying in his trial, in a show of support for him.

Knesset Speaker, MK Amir Ohana, is also attending the hearing this morning to express his support for Netanyahu.

Earlier, another unusual event occurred during the hearing. Netanyahu's military secretary, Major General Roman Gofman, made an unexpected appearance at the Tel Aviv District Court during the Prime Minister's trial.

Gofman handed an envelope to the Prime Minister, and immediately after, Netanyahu requested an urgent break from the judges to receive a security update.

"My military secretary came here, I need to see him immediately. This is rare, he doesn't come here at all," Netanyahu told the judges, who agreed to his request.

A political source later revealed that the update concerned developments on the Syrian front, which required the Prime Minister's intervention.