Friday, August 8, 2025
Associated Press’s sympathy for Hezbollah terrorists could’ve been a Babylon Bee parody
The Associated Press just made it clear where it stands on the terrorists’ war on Israel: With the terrorists.
How else to read its bizarre puff piece Wednesday sympathizing with the poor, suffering Hezbollah goons injured in Israel’s pager attack last year?
The Babylon Bee couldn’t have come up with a better parody than the 2,100-word feature, “Survivors of Israel’s pager attack on Hezbollah struggle to recover” — though that’s not how AP’s Bassem Mroue and Sarah El Deeb meant it.
The two recount their interviews with six people wounded in the attack, all “Hezbollah officials or fighters or members of their families.”
Israel, they explain, launched an operation aimed at “harming and disrupting” Hezbollah members. Such nerve, no?
Except that this came as Hezbollah was firing rockets aimed at obliterating innocent Israelis — in “solidarity” with Hamas, which had just waged the most barbaric attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
Jerusalem “boasts” of the attack, seethe AP’s authors, who then cite critics claiming it “may have violated international law, calling it indiscriminate.”
Indiscriminate? It was the most cleanly targeted thing possible: Only Hez heavies had the pagers, and Hezbollah admits those wounded or killed were almost all its terrorist personnel.
Ah, but the AP pair never actually use the word “terrorist” as they lament the suffering of Hez associates who “lost fingers” and had “shrapnel lodged under their skin.”
Mahdi Sheri, a 23-year-old Hezbollah fighter, “can no longer play football.” Horror of horrors!
“It’s impossible now” for him even to “find a role alongside Hezbollah fighters.”
What? Never able to attack Israel again? Unforgiveable!
Worse: Hezbollah “is left with the financial and psychological burden of thousands who need long-term medical treatment and recovery.”
Poor, sad terrorist group.
OK, the wire service’s sick bias isn’t news: E.g., after Israel eliminated Hez boss Hassan Nasrallah, the AP’s headline mourned him as “charismatic and shrewd.”
An old and storied agency, the AP may still employ a few objective professionals.
But it’s still become a propaganda tool for terrorists, plain and simple.
Rabbi Dov Lando Visits Draft Dodgers in Prison ..But Never Went to be "Menacham Avel" Parents of Murdered Soldiers
Did I miss the video of the venerable Rosh yeshivah being menachem avel any family whose son or husband was killed in the war? Even once?
I’m sure his ahavas yisrael extends beyond the chareidi camp, right?
Please tell me I’m wrong. Perhaps his yeshivah keeps a list of the injured on the bima that they say tehillim for. I dont know. Please disabuse me of my erroneous presumptions.
Prominent Haredi leader Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual head of Degel HaTorah and a key figure in the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, visited brothers Rafael and Baruch Yitzhakov at the military prison in Beit Lid. The brothers, yeshiva students from Tel Aviv, were arrested after failing to report to the draft office.
Rabbi Lando, 94, was escorted into the family visit section, as shown in a video released by his office. His visit underscores the Haredi leadership’s ongoing stance encouraging yeshiva students to ignore military draft orders.
The brothers’ arrest on Wednesday prompted Rabbi Lando’s office to declare that Israel had “declared war on yeshiva students.” Approximately 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 remain eligible for service but have not enlisted, despite a High Court ruling last year that invalidated decades of blanket draft exemptions for the Haredi community.
For the past year, Haredi leaders have attempted to promote legislation which would establish the status of yeshiva students as exempt from draft, but Likud leaders have consistently demanded sanctions be applied even to yeshiva students who are not drafted. The new head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Boaz Bismuth, will try and reopen the negotiations in order to formulate a law which could be acceptable to the charedi public but will still raise draft levels.
Gedoilim Decide That "Davening" Won't Help So they reach out to Goyim in Secret Talks Over Yeshiva Draft Arrests
As I keep saying that when it comes to Chareidim's own interests, they abandon the RBS"O and reach out to Goyim! They don't believe that "Torah Protects" at all! Turning to non-Jews for an intra-Jewish matter – that worked out just great for Hyrkanos and Aristoblus, didn’t it?
"Hishtadlus" ??????
The biggest "Hishtadlus" is to put on a uniform and help your own brothers and sisters!! לא תעמוד על דם רעך is a "lav" in the Torah!
Recent confidential meetings took place in Bnei Brak between a representative of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior haredi rabbis, addressing the growing controversy over Israel’s military draft law and the arrests of yeshiva students.
The discussions were held at the homes of Rabbis Dov Lando and Moshe Hillel Hirsch, leaders of Degel HaTorah, and focused on exploring possible American diplomatic involvement. Haredi leaders cited previous U.S. intervention in conscription issues in Ukraine as a potential precedent.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Lando made a rare visit to Beit Lid Military Prison to support Refael and Baruch Itzhakov, two Tel Aviv yeshiva students detained for refusing to report for military service. Associates say the rabbi is deeply troubled by the arrests and has been unable to sleep over the situation.
These details were reported by i24NEWS on Thursday.
Inscription Found In Judean Desert: ‘Abba Of Naburya Has Perished’
In a remarkable discovery in a Judean desert cave, researchers found a four-line ancient Aramaic inscription, possibly written by Jewish rebels from the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans in the 2nd century CE. The discovery was revealed Monday by two Israeli scholars at a prominent academic conference in Jerusalem on Monday, according to a Times of Israel report
“Abba of Naburya has perished,” the first line reads. Only isolated words or letters in the additional three lines have been deciphered, including the words “on us,” “he took,” and “the.”
The inscription was discovered in a cave near the Ein Gedi National Park in the Dead Sea region. The cave was already known to archaeologists as it contains a stalactite with a fragmentary ink inscription written in ancient Hebrew script characteristic of the First Temple period.
Son of Rabbi Who is an IDF Opponent Is Helping Chareidim to Enlist
Rabbi Hanoch Kaufman — son of Rabbi Chaim Aharon Kaufman, a senior member of the influential Yeshiva Committee — is reportedly collaborating with the Israeli army to create a special service track for his yeshiva students, according to Channel 13.
While his father has been a staunch opponent of Haredim serving in the IDF, the younger Kaufman is pursuing a program that would give some of his students a defined path into military service.
The Yeshiva Committee, once the main channel for coordinating legal service deferments between ultra-Orthodox institutions and the Defense Ministry, has in recent years shifted focus. A Times of Israel investigation earlier this year found it now uses a hotline to advise students on avoiding enlistment altogether.
Rabbi Hanoch Kaufman heads Bakshu Yeshiva, an institution known for integrating Haredi youth who left other religious schools.
Military service exemptions for Haredi men have been under intense scrutiny. Roughly 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18–24 are believed to be eligible for enlistment but have not joined the IDF — despite a High Court ruling last year that ended the decades-long blanket exemptions.
So far, Haredi political and rabbinic leaders have resisted all proposals to draft even a portion of their young men, including those who are not in full-time Torah study.
זה מידע שאסור לכם לפספס: בזמן שאביו, יו"ר ועד הישיבות הרב חיים קאופמן, קבע נחרצות שגם צעירים חרדים בטלנים אסור להם להתגייס לצה"ל - הבן שלו, הרב חנוך קאופמן, כראש ישיבת "בקשו" לצעירים חרדים נושרים, נמצא בימים אלו במשא ומתן מתקדם עם משרד הביטחון על הסדרת מסלול צבאי לתלמידיו https://t.co/KarsEGQbzn pic.twitter.com/1JR4vyJqtR
— יואלי ברים yoeli brim (@yoeli_brim) August 7, 2025
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Cuomo Shifts Tone on his defense of Israel in NYC Campaign Revamp Post-Loss
Cuomo, who served as legal counsel to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in an interview Tuesday that the vote for Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of the Jewish state, signified a shift in how some New York Democrats view the actions of the Israeli government.
“It gets into a nuance that we have not discussed,” he said. “Do I support what the Israel government is doing vis-à-vis Gaza? No. Do I support Israel impeding humanitarian aid? No.”
Still, Cuomo condemned the rise in antisemitism, one of his main talking points during his primary campaign.
“Does that justify antisemitic activity in New York City against Jewish people? No, right? But now it’s a finer line in the discussion.”
The new tone marks a subtle shift in Cuomo’s language around Israel. He said at an event at a Hamptons synagogue last month that Mamdani’s supporters “are pro-Palestinian and they don’t consider it being anti-Israel,” the Forward reported.
In a statement sent late Tuesday, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said the governor “was mimicking two sides of a discussion, in this case voicing the opinion of a portion of the electorate that is saying ‘they don’t agree with everything Israel is doing or they think Israel is hampering humanitarian aid’ and that while they are entitled to their opinion, that does not justify anti Semitic behavior.” Speaking in the voice of a hypothetical interlocutor is a rhetorical habit Cuomo is known to engage in “when arguing a point,” Azzopardi said.
Longest Standing Get Refuser In Israel Grants Wife Divorce After Presidential Pardon
In a joint initiative of the President of Israel, the Minister of Justice, the Rabbinical Court, and the Public Defender’s Office, a long-time divorce refuser released his wife from over two decades of being an agunah (chained woman).
The Rabbinical Court in Safed (Tzfat) approved the granting of a get (Jewish divorce) to a woman who had been an agunah for more than 20 years. The resolution of the complex case was made possible thanks to a unique collaboration between the Public Defender’s Office, the Pardons Department in the Ministry of Justice, the Rabbinical Court, the Minister of Justice, and the President of Israel.
The couple had married in the United States and had three children. In 2002, the woman filed for divorce in a U.S. rabbinical court, but her husband refused to appear in court, and a contempt order was issued against him.
In 2011, when the man came to Israel for his son’s Bar Mitzvah, the woman filed for divorce in an Israeli Rabbinical Court and obtained a court order preventing him from leaving the country. The court later ruled that he was obligated to grant the get, but he refused. Even after a ruling from the Great Rabbinical Court, he continued to resist.
A year later, he was sent to civil prison for refusing to give the get and served seven years. During his imprisonment, the Rabbinical Court imposed various sanctions on him, including a ban on receiving strictly kosher food. Still, the man persisted in his refusal.
About four years ago, in a rare move, the police prosecution filed criminal charges against the man for “violating a court order intended to protect a person.” He was convicted by the Haifa Magistrate’s Court and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
After his appeal was rejected, attorney Avraham Sofer, representing the man via the Public Defender’s Office, proposed a solution: the man would grant the get in exchange for receiving a presidential pardon and release from prison.
The request was reviewed by the Pardons Department of the Ministry of Justice, which contacted a representative from the Rabbinical Court who had been supporting the woman. He described her prolonged suffering and her plea for the President and Minister of Justice to intervene and help free her from her marital captivity through an act of clemency.
After reviewing the full details of the case, the Pardons Department drafted a unique opinion on the complex and sensitive matter and forwarded its recommendation for approval by the Minister of Justice and the President’s Office.
Indeed, in this exceptional case, the President decided—after receiving the recommendations—to perform an act of compassion and mercy toward the woman by easing the man’s sentence, on the condition that he grants the get. Today, after a lengthy court session attended by the man, he signed the get, and accordingly, the official letter of sentence reduction was issued by the President.
The President’s Office stated:
“The decision in this case was a necessary step. The President of Israel has done and will continue to do everything in his power to assist women who are denied a get in their distress. The power of pardon is a vital social tool that occasionally provides solutions to complex social and humanitarian issues.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin commented:
“Despite the difficulty of granting a pardon to someone undeserving of it, I saw it as my duty to save, quite literally, the tormented soul of a woman who had remained an agunah for more than 20 years. I hope this will allow her to begin a new chapter in her life, as she so rightly deserves, after so many years of imposed suffering.”
Attorney Limor Goldenberg-Hadad, head of the Pardons Department at the Ministry of Justice, said this was a heartbreaking case of a woman who had desperately sought a get for many long and painful years and is now battling a serious illness.
Attorney Avraham Sofer, who represented the man on behalf of the Public Defender’s Office, stated that this was the longest-standing get refuser in Israel.
“We are glad we were able to help find a solution that allowed the get to be granted and led to the man’s immediate release.”
Adam Schiff Under Criminal Investigation for Alleged Mortgage Fraud
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff is under criminal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud, according to a report Tuesday by Fox News.
Schiff is accused of falsifying bank records in order to obtain more favorable loan terms on a Potomac, Maryland property between 2003 and 2019. The allegations suggest the longtime California lawmaker manipulated documents related to his mortgage payments.
“Mr. Adam B. Schiff has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms,” Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte said. “Such misconduct jeopardizes the safety and soundness of FHFA’s regulated entities and the security and stability of the U.S. mortgage market.”
The FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, has confirmed it is actively reviewing the claims as part of its regulatory responsibility.
Schiff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Satmar in panic as Federal Judge rules that targeting the Star of David is “is racially motivated "
🚨 BREAKING:
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) August 5, 2025
A federal judge has ruled that targeting the Star of David is “as racially motivated as the N-word,” after a Jewish activist was allegedly choked by CODEPINK member Janine Ali during a pro-Hamas protest in the U.S. Capitol.
The activist, Kimmara Sumrall, was… pic.twitter.com/YCLVcO1WqW
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