Deri Who Backed the Disastrous Oslo Accords Has Verbal Fight With MK Orit Strock

During the a meeting of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet, an unusual confrontation erupted between Settlement Minister Orit Strock and MK Aryeh Deri, stemming from differing views on a possible deal with Hamas for the hostages' release.

According to a Kan News report by Michael Shemesh, Deri stated that if Hamas offers a deal, Israel must stop and examine it: "The hostages are civilians, and we must save their lives."

Strock angrily responded: "When you gave the hill in front of my house to Yasser Arafat [as part of the Oslo Accords], are those lives we can afford to give up?" Later, Deri retracted his statement.

Several other confrontations took place during the meeting. MK Deri claimed that "it is immoral not to release hostages," while Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticized this position, saying: "Is it moral for a hundred soldiers to be killed, and then for us to retreat for ten hostages?"

Smotrich also criticized the military: "If it takes three months and three brigades because of the explosives - you are criminals. This is the result of previous deals."

Smotrich voted against the proposed plan, but Prime Minister Netanyahu assured him that Hamas would eventually be defeated, citing remarks from Minister Avi Dichter, who stated that the destruction of a Gazan City would help topple Hamas’ rule. Likud ministers gave Netanyahu the necessary majority, and the plan moved forward.

 

Rabbi Dov Lando pushing "BDS LIKE" economic moves to harm Israel

 

Lithuanian-haredi leader Rabbi Dov Lando has recently initiated an unusual move in which several haredi factions would withdraw their investment funds from Israel, Channel 12 News reported.

According to the report, Rabbi Lando recently approached members of the Eidah Haharedit to explore the possibility that they would join the move in protest of the arrest of haredi yeshiva students who refuse to enlist in the IDF.

The Eidah Haharedit was surprised by the request, which was described as particularly unusual due to the sharp differences between the two sides.

While the extremist faction opposes any cooperation with State institutions, Rabbi Lando is associated with the organized leadership of the haredi community. In response, members of the Eidah Haharedit suggested that Rabbi Lando join the protests, but he refused, stating, according to them, that "he does not believe in this."

The request is being carefully considered by the members of the Eidah Haharedit due to Rabbi Lando's senior status. A source within the Eidah Haharedit claimed that the move could have "dramatic consequences, even leading to the collapse of banks." The source emphasized that despite their rigid ideological stance, they take a cautious and practical approach.

On Thursday, Rabbi Lando, 96, visited the military prison at Beit Lid, where two young haredi men are being held. This is an unusual step by the Lithuanian-haredi leader, and the visit was approved by the military police.

Huckabee Fires Back at UK Leader: ‘Israel Won’t Feed Its Enemies While Hostages Starve’

 US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday, unleashed a harsh condemnation of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s calls for de-escalation in Israel’s fight against Hamas. In a pointed Twitter message, Huckabee demanded to know if Israel is expected to simply surrender to Hamas and feed terrorists while its own citizens remain held hostage and starved. He drew a stark historical parallel, asking if Britain capitulated to the Nazis during World War II or dropped food supplies to them, invoking the brutal bombing of Dresden as a symbol of resolute resistance.

Starmer’s public denouncement of Israel’s military escalation as “wrong” and his demand for immediate reconsideration were met with blunt dismissal. Supporters of Israel highlight that Prime Minister Netanyahu has authorized the transfer of two million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza—aid that Hamas deliberately blocks from reaching Israeli hostages. They accuse Starmer of irresponsibly ignoring these realities and note that even the Arab League has unequivocally demanded Hamas disarm and release all hostages immediately.

Huckabee’s blistering criticism underscores the failure of Western leaders like Starmer to grasp the brutal nature of Hamas and the existential threat Israel faces. It is a call to stand firmly with Israel’s right to defend itself, not to indulge appeasement that only emboldens terrorism.

 

How much food has Starmer and the UK sent to Gaza? @IsraeliPM has already sent 2 MILLION TONS into Gaza & none of it even getting to hostages. Maybe UK PM ought to sit this one out & follow Arab League who said Hamas should disarm & release ALL hostages immediately.

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) August 8, 2025

Zera Shimshon Parshat Va'etchanan

 

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

Cuomo Shifts Tone on his defense of Israel in NYC Campaign Revamp Post-Loss

 Andrew Cuomo shifted from his historically fierce defense of Israel, recalibrating his messaging ahead of New York City’s mayoral election after his defeat in the Democratic primary.

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.