Commando Unit Captures Top Hezbollah Terrorist
In recent times, we have been received news almost every motzoei Shabbos about the elimination of yet another key terrorist leader. This past motzoei Shabbos, in fact, someone joked in my shul that we were probably going to hear reports that night that the IDF had eliminated Mohammed Deif again. We have grown accustomed to these eliminations taking place on Shabbos. But despite that amusing quip, this is no laughing matter, since the attack on Iran also took place on Shabbos (and some say that Iran’s expected attack on Israel will be on this coming Shabbos, although the election in America may have complicated the matter). In any event, this past motzoei Shabbos did bring us some news from the war, as we were informed that the elite unit known as Shayetet 13 had carried out a daring raid in Lebanon and captured a high-ranking Hezbollah official.
According to foreign sources (the standard attribution in the Israeli press for any story when the military censor does not permit them to report specific details) a large force of over 25 Israeli soldiers arrived at the coast in Batroun, about 140 kilometers from the Israeli border, and captured a Hezbollah operative who was in a building in the area. Israeli sources said that the successful raid “mainly demonstrates operational daring; they came along and simply plucked someone from deep within Lebanon.” The IDF confirmed that the special commando mission, which was carried out in conjunction with the navy, resulted in the arrest of a Hezbollah operative who would be a “source of knowledge” about the terror group’s naval capabilities. The commando mission also resulted in the elimination of several terrorists who are associated with Hezbollah’s maritime operations.
The dramatic raid marked the first time in this war that Israel publicly acknowledged a ground operation deep within Lebanon, far from the border region where limited ground maneuvers have been taking place for several weeks with the goal of dismantling Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure. The Israeli air force carried out broad air strikes throughout Lebanon at the same time.
In Israel, the ongoing war is causing significant grief, with news arriving every day of IDF fatalities in Lebanon and in Gaza. The conditions in Lebanon make it possible for the soldiers to be taken by surprise at any moment, even more so than in Gaza. Hundreds of terrorists, possibly even thousands, have already been eliminated, and 700 others, including some active terrorists, were taken prisoner. Moreover, it is possible that the Hamas infrastructures in Gaza and Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure in Lebanon have been almost completely destroyed. Nevertheless, there has been a very high price to pay for these accomplishments.
Terror Plot Foiled in the North
Even amidst all our other troubles, terror is continuing in Israel on a regular basis. Nevertheless, in Hashem’s great kindness, most of the attempted terror attacks have been foiled before they could be carried out. The Shin Bet recently revealed that it has apprehended 260 wanted terror suspects in Yehuda, Shimron, and the Jordan Valley (which includes the road that runs from Yerushalayim to Teveria via Yericho). The term “wanted suspects” indicates that they were guilty of repeated terror-related offenses. And if they were captured in Yehuda and Shomron, then that can only mean that they were living in the midst of the Jewish populace. It is very easy for a terrorist coming from that area to perpetrate a terror attack anywhere in Israel, chas v’shalom. In fact, the three most recent fatal terror attacks were perpetrated by Arab residents of Israel; as I have mentioned in the past, terrorists with Israeli citizenship are a much more serious threat. In addition to the 260 terror suspects, the Shin Bet also captured dozens of explosives that were intended for use in terror attacks, and confiscated numerous weapons, vehicles, and a large quantity of cash. Two cases of espionage were also discovered. In one case, a group of immigrants from the Caucasus were enticed by Iranian agents, and in the other case, there was a single individual who was guilty of the offense. The media labeled him a “chareidi from Bnei Brak,” but this is not true. As of this writing, there is a gag order on all details of the case, but I can tell you that I know the suspect’s identity, and he is not chareidi and does not live in Bnei Brak.
In the month of October, 64 Israeli soldiers and 24 civilians were killed. Incidentally, most of the civilians were not Jewish. A number of Thai agricultural workers were killed by a missile in the north, and several Arabs in the village of Tira were killed in a missile strike. That is actually quite astounding.
On a related note, the Shin Bet and the police thwarted a combined explosive and shooting attack planned by a 23-year-old resident of Araba in the Galil, with the assistance of Arab illegal aliens who infiltrated the area of Yehuda and Shomron. The terrorists were plotting to murder Jews who came to daven at kivrei tzaddikim in the area of the Galil; the charges filed against them make it very clear that they were planning a massacre. The main suspect, told his interrogators that he was plotting a combined terror attack, in which he intended to detonate an explosive and then to open fire on Jews arriving to visit kevorim in the Galil. The suspect also revealed under questioning that at the beginning of the war, he threw firebombs toward the access road for the Jewish settlement of Avtalyon, which is near his home.
Let us daven that the new year of 5785 will bring us peace. Personally, I believe that the terrorists’ increased focus on religious Jews should not be taken lightly. There seems to have been some sort of change in their mentality, as they have begun directing their rage against the chareidi community. This is something we have seen in a number incidents, beginning with the terror attacks in Bnei Brak and Elad.
Government Approves 2025 State Budget
On Friday, after two days of marathon discussions, the government approved the state budget for the year 2025, with a total expenditure of 607.4 billion shekels. There was some rancor within the government as several ministers dug in their heels and tried to insist that their ministries’ budgets cannot be cut, but the Finance Ministry had little choice. The massive expenditures caused by the war over the past year will certainly affect the budget, and the need to cut funding for government ministries was inescapable. In general, this is done by reducing the funding by a certain percentage across the board and leaving it to each ministry to determine the areas where its spending will be reduced. Six ministers voted against the budget: three from Otzma Yehudit, on account of the major cut in funding for the police force, and three from the Likud (Mickey Zohar, Avi Dichter, and Idit Silman), each for his or her own reason.
Now that the government has voted in favor of the budget, it will be transferred to the Knesset for a vote, and we can expect marathon discussions there as well, as is the case every year when the budget is debated. According to the law, the budget must receive the Knesset’s approval no later than the end of December.
The new budget included cuts to coalition funding as well, which would ordinarily be opposed by the chareidi ministers (i.e., Yitzchok Goldknopf and the ministers from the Shas party), but they voted in favor of the budget. This was also despite their previous threats to vote against the budget if a new draft law failed to pass. On the other hand, they did manage to prevent an economic blow to the weaker sectors of society. Two ministers in particular were behind the push to alter the terms of the budget: Welfare Minister Yaakov Margi and Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur. Thanks to their efforts, the prime minister met with Aryeh Deri and Finance Minister Smotrich, and the three officials reached an agreement to cancel the provision that would have frozen National Insurance stipends for the weaker classes. As of now, only the government child stipend will be frozen. On the other hand, they decided to raise the National Insurance contributions of the general populace instead, meaning that the monthly tax paid by every worker to the National Insurance Institute will be hiked. The prime minister’s announcement to the public described this move as “for the goal of preserving the fiscal frameworks and trust in the marketplaces without harming the disabled, the elderly, victims of terror, bereaved parents, and the other weak sectors.”
That closed-door session yielded another agreement as well: The New Horizon program of teachers’ benefits will now be expanded to include chareidi teachers. The program was launched to provide benefits to all teachers in Israel, but the teachers in chareidi schools were cruelly excluded, an injustice that the government has now decided to correct. However, this saga is apparently not over, as Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara decided to interfere and announced that the move was illegal. She claims that chareidi schools do not have sufficient oversight and do not teach enough secular subjects, and therefore they should be excluded from the program. She is probably wrong, but it seems that a new battle is about to begin.
Crossing Swords with the Attorney General
The chareidi community’s fury against the attorney general is reaching a boiling point. First and foremost, she has antagonized the community with her constant meddling in the efforts to pass a draft law. Together with her deputy, Gil Limon, Baharav-Miara has been doing everything in her power to impede the progress of any such bill. She has sent letters to the prime minister notifying him that he is acting in violation of the law (according to her interpretation), she has notified the Supreme Court that she has sided with the various petitions against the draft exemption for yeshiva bochurim, she has barred ministers from seeking separate representation before the judges, and she has already denounced several proposed versions of a new draft law as unconstitutional. If the attorney general announces in advance that a version of the law will not be acceptable, then there is probably no chance that the Supreme Court will back it. Then again, as I mentioned last week, the attorney general herself recently suffered a serious blow from the judges of the Supreme Court.
Baharav-Miara has also infuriated the religious community with her ferocious battle against subsidies for day care for the children of kollel yungeleit. I have written about this at length in the past, but let me just remind you of the basics. Baharav-Miara was the one who decided that since the Supreme Court ruled that all yeshiva bochurim and kollel yungeleit are required to be drafted (as long as a new draft law isn’t in place), and therefore that they all have the status of criminals in the interim, it is forbidden for the government to subsidize day care for the children of yungeleit with wives in the work force. The budget for day care subsidies is under the jurisdiction of the minister of labor, Yoav Ben-Tzur of the Shas party, who disagreed with the attorney general’s interpretation of the law. He argued strenuously that the day care subsidies are provided for the children and their working mothers, and the law disregards the husband’s occupation altogether. The attorney general, however, disagrees with his view and has written to him repeatedly that he is legally required to obey her instructions.
Ben-Tzur, however, refused to implement the attorney general’s directives. For lack of an alternative, he simply halted all day care subsidies for all families in Israel, including secular families, pending a ruling from the Supreme Court. He also announced that he is appealing to the Supreme Court against the attorney general. Of course, she responded by barring him from petitioning the Supreme Court, and she informed him that halting all the subsidies was illegal. In her view, Ben-Tzur is required to continue funding day care for all families other than those of kollel yungeleit. But once again, he refused to accept her instructions. At the same time, an initiative was launched to pass a law in the Knesset permitting the state to subsidize day care for yungeleit. This initiative is being spearheaded by Yisroel Eichler, and it, too, hasn’t escaped the attorney general’s attention. She announced this week that any such law would be unconstitutional and would also encourage draft evasion, which appears to be her idea of the most heinous possible offense. Many government ministers, including the prime minister, have asked her to simply resign and go home, and I doubt that anyone in the government would shed a tear if she took that suggestion to heart, but don’t hold your breath.
Malicious Meddling and Contemptible Coverage
The war being waged by Baharav-Miara and Gil Limon against day care subsidies for yungeleit has begun to take on an air of malicious obsession. Anyone who knows how to read will recognize that they are making multiple assumptions that are far from certain. For one thing, it isn’t clear at all that yungeleit who haven’t enlisted in the IDF are truly subject to criminal status and should be disqualified from receiving government funding at all. Second, it isn’t clear if the day care subsidies are considered a government benefit that should be revoked in that situation. And finally, it is not clear if the law would really require the wife and children of a kollel yungerman to be penalized because of his decision not to work or join the army. Limon and Baharav-Miara have chosen to take the strictest position on all these questions, while Yoav Ben-Tzur has been working hard to prevent harm to the yungeleit and the mothers and young children who would be directly affected by this decision. So far, the government has accepted his recommendation to freeze the subsidies for all parents in the country for three months, in opposition to the attorney general’s position, and an official law granting day care subsidies to the families of yungeleit is now in the works. Meanwhile, Baharav-Miara wrote a letter attacking Ben-Tzur and claiming that his actions weren’t reasonable or measured—a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
But I would like to make an observation about a related issue. I am outraged by the blatantly skewed media coverage of this conflict. On Monday, Haaretz featured the following headline on its front page: “Labor minister fights attorney general to fund day care for yeshiva students subject to the draft.” The bias in this headline is evident when one considers that it could have been written very differently: “Attorney general fights labor minister’s efforts to preserve day care subsidies for working mothers.” But the newspaper made it very clear where its sympathies lie.
The Marker, which is an offshoot of Haaretz and shares its malicious stances, featured a similarly inflammatory headline: “While war rages in Lebanon, what’s urgent for the government is funding day care for chareidi draft dodgers.” Again, I would have written exactly the opposite: “While war rages in Lebanon, what’s urgent for the attorney general is denying day care to the wive of Torah learners.”
Inside the newspaper, a full page was dedicated to a purportedly scholarly article, which I found to be riddled with errors and contradictions to a ludicrous extent. For instance, there was the following gem: “Ben-Tzur and Shas simply don’t care. After all, they are creating a constitutional crisis over the rights of chareidim to continue avoiding the draft, in the middle of a war.” First of all, there is only one reason for the writer to invoke the war in this context—to stir up further resentment against the chareidi community. Second, it is utterly disingenuous to frame this conflict as a fight to avoid the draft. If the day care subsidies are revoked, that doesn’t mean that the yungeleit will sign up for army service. I have to wonder if there is any limit to the nonsense that Israel’s newspapers will print.
Nevertheless, Ben-Tzur hasn’t allowed the attorney general to have the last word. After her most recent letter, he wrote a public response excoriating her for exploiting the heroic soldiers of the IDF in an effort to harm kollel yungeleit.
Speaking of Haaretz, the newspaper was at the center of another public maelstrom last week after its chief editor spoke at a conference in London in favor of Hamas terrorists, whom he described as “freedom fighters.” This led to a firestorm of outrage in Israel, with many calling for a boycott on advertising in Haaretz until the editor retracts his comments.
Is Israel Giving Russia Property in the Old City?
Does Israel plan to hand over Alexander’s Courtyard in the Old City to the Russian government? That seems to be the case, and it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone.
The status of this property has been under discussion between Israel and Moscow for several years and the subject came up in meetings between Netanyahu and Putin. The suspicion that Israel is about to make an even more generous gesture to Russia seems to be supported by the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered a ministerial team to resume examining the possibility of returning ownership of the courtyard to the Russian Federation. This was revealed by the former prime minister of Russia, who has close ties to President Vladimir Putin and is responsible for managing negotiations with Israel on behalf of the Russian government. About two months ago, Netanyahu’s military secretary, Roman Gofman, visited Russia. Shortly thereafter, it was reported that Russia was working to lower the tensions between Israel and Iran and was even involved in efforts to arrange for two hostages with Russian citizenship to be freed. Tensions between Israel and Russia have been running high for quite a while, since the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, when Israel followed the lead of the United States and supported Ukraine’s position. The Russian prime minister said, “Despite the war, Netanyahu has ordered the ‘work group’ to resume its efforts. All the materials have been presented to us and are being studied now. At this time, there is no legal basis for failing to recognize this property as owned by Russia.”
Alexander’s Courtyard first found its way into the headlines in the year 2019, when a young Israeli named Naama Yissachar was jailed in Moscow. When the young lady was freed, it was reported that the talks between Israel and Russia over her release had included a Russian demand for ownership of Alexander’s Courtyard. There is no hard evidence that the courtyard was actually part of the deal, but various sources indicate that when Putin agreed to Netanyahu’s request to release Yissachar, Netanyahu agreed in turn to give Putin the property known as Alexander’s Courtyard. You may remember that Naama Yissachar returned to Israel with Netanyahu when he came home from his visit to Moscow.
The 1300-square-meter courtyard is located in a valuable location frequented by tourists in the heart of the Old City of Yerushalayim. The property has been under the de facto control of an organization known as OPS since the year 1890; however, it was registered in Ottoman records under the ownership of the Russian imperial government. On October 18, 2020, Prime Minister Netanyahu signed an order declaring it a “holy site,” whose status cannot be determined by any court. On the day after Netanyahu signed the order, the state issued a decision permitting the courtyard to be registered under the ownership of the Russian Federation again; however, the move has been blocked thus far by the organization controlling it.
The next stage in the process was a personal request from Putin. In December 2023, after the war began, it was reported that the process of restoring Russian ownership over Alexander’s Courtyard was “stuck” due to the war in Gaza but that the issue hadn’t been removed from the agenda. About one month later, the state appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision to cancel the registration of the church under the ownership of the Russian government. The decision was then transferred to Netanyahu, who designated the ministerial team to assess the situation.
Miracles Amid the Mayhem
In a recent column, I quoted several academics who scoffed at people describing personal miracles, describing them as suffering from “delusions and hallucinations” and even accusing them of fabricating the stories for the purpose of amassing wealth. I expressed my objections to those who deny the miracles that Hashem performs for us. In the interim, many stories about the October 7 massacre have been published in almost all of Israel’s newspapers—on the secular anniversary of the tragedy in the general press, and on Sukkos in the religious media—and numerous stories have been told that are unmistakable testaments to Hashem’s hashgocha and overt lifesaving miracles. I cannot fathom how people who are ostensibly educated and intelligent can deny this obvious reality.
One of the stories was told by Yaron Maor, a member of the communal security squad in Kibbutz Nir Oz. He describes his family’s escape from the terrorists in the following paragraph: “There was chaos again—gunfire into the house and another grenade exploding. At that point, they changed their strategy and approached the rear of the house, where I was hiding, and opened the window to the bedroom. I saw a few well-armed terrorists, and I emptied my entire cartridge of ammunition. I put in a new cartridge and managed to fire another five or six shots, and then another grenade was thrown into the room. I ran into the entrance to the safe room, where the blast walls are located, and the grenade exploded. The loud boom left me temporarily deaf. I saw that the mattress was on fire, and I was about to bring water to try to extinguish the flames, but something stopped me. I realized that it was better for the house to burn down so that the terrorists couldn’t get inside. I said goodbye to my wife; I understood that we did not have a chance of surviving. Smoke filled the safe room, and I realized that they were trying to force us to come out. We stayed there until we were on the verge of losing consciousness, and then she decided that we had to go outside rather than suffocate to death. She went outside with the girls, and I stood next to the window with my gun to scan the area for terrorists. I saw a group of IDF soldiers, and they were certain that I was a terrorist, but I shouted loudly, ‘Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad!’”
I am not sure if he meant it this way, but Yaron is clearly attesting to a miracle that saved his life. How could anyone fail to give thanks to the Creator of the world for such an occurrence? How could a group of academics and kofrim decide to make a mockery of these miracles?
Then there are miracles that are even more blatant. On Sunday afternoon, I heard a radio announcer say, “Today, sixty missiles were launched toward Israel from the direction of Lebanon. Yesterday [on Shabbos] another 60 missiles were launched. There were no fatalities.” He added that a house in Acco had been destroyed and warehouses in Nazareth had been damaged, but there were no deaths at all. Could there be any greater miracle than that? Every interception or missile launch has the capacity to cause terrible tragedies, yet 120 missiles over the course of two days did not claim a single life. That is an undeniable miracle, and we should all give thanks to Hashem for His kindness.
Shocking Findings in the State Archive
There is a government employee in Israel known as the state comptroller, who is responsible for overseeing the state and all of its agencies. The comptroller used to publish an annual report, but in recent years he has begun releasing more frequent reports on a variety of subjects. Several of his recent reports have provided hair-raising information about what takes place within the state archives, where all the state secrets are filed away. Those archives also contain documents relating to the country’s crimes against the Yemenite community, including material that was kept hidden from previous investigative commissions.
Here are a couple of key figures that appear in the report: “Twenty-two years after the loss of a computer deposited by the Cohen-Kedmi Commission in the State Archives, there is concern that the Commission’s documents and data that were stored on it were lost with it. And one hundred thirty-eight archive files that were lent to the Archive’s employees who no longer work there were not returned.”
Let me put that in plainer terms: The computer containing all the material collected by the Cohen-Kedmi Commission simply vanished, along with all the data it held. A vast quantity of material with historical value and criminal significance, material that is certainly highly sensitive, simply disappeared into an abyss. And while everyone knows that any material stored in a computer should be backed up elsewhere, that was not done in this case. There is no procedure in place for a computer to be stored in the archive. And one must wonder if the loss of the computer and its contents was actually intentional.
The report also reveals, “The State Comptroller representatives toured the State Archives building. They found the Cohen-Kedmi Commission’s audio-visual archival material in an open container on a table in the corridor, not in an archiving facility, as required by the State Archives procedures.” In addition, the comptroller’s staff discovered that the computer had been borrowed by one of the archive’s employees and was not returned. The archive workers did not even realize that it was missing until an organization requested material that was stored on it, and the archive responded that they were not able to locate the computer. But something about this seems very strange to me: If they knew that the computer was borrowed, why didn’t they simply ask the borrower where it was? To make matters worse, the fact that 138 files were borrowed and not returned makes it seem that there is a chronic issue of materials being removed from the archive. This seems more fitting for a third-world country.
A Historic Letter from Rav Chaim Shmulevitz
In conclusion, I would like to share with you a fascinating historic document—a letter written by Rav Chaim Shmulevitz about 83 years ago, in the month of Elul 5701/1941. The letter was sent from Shanghai to Rav Yehonasan Abramowitz, a rov in Dallas, Texas. Rav Rabinowitz was one of the Mir yeshiva’s staunchest supporters in America, and Rav Chaim’s letter describes the experiences of the bnei yeshiva during their flight from the Nazis in vivid language.
“In previous years,” Rav Chaim writes, “you advocated for us before the leaders of our people in your camp, and thanks to your influence, our yeshiva received an annual contribution in the sum of 500 dollars. Considering that you have shared our burdens and empathized with the hardships of the talmidei chachomim in the yeshiva in previous years, I am sure that at this time, during the most dreadful tragedy that we have ever endured, you will certainly understand our serious situation and use your great influence over the Federation to renew that budget, and if possible, to fill in for the previous two years as well. For two years, since the war broke out, we have been wandering from one exile to another. We traveled to Lithuania, but the cup of suffering was poured out upon us there as well. Boruch Hashem, our yeshiva was saved from there through tremendous miracles, and it is the only one of the great Torah centers of Europe to have been saved and remained intact. From there, we traveled through Siberia and wandered until we reached the land of Japan. We remained in Japan for more than half a year, and the yeshiva survived there in all its glory and sacred beauty. The hasmodah and spiritual elevation were unimaginable, but our tranquility did not last long, and we were suddenly assailed by the decree to leave the land immediately and travel to Shanghai. In just a few days, like abandoned orphans tossed between the waves, the entire yeshiva was relocated to Shanghai.”
Rav Chaim goes on to describe the hardships encountered by the yeshiva in its new location: “Our current exile has been the worst in the yeshiva’s entire history. No man has the strength to describe the suffering that we are experiencing here. One’s hair would stand on end at the sight of hundreds of bnei Torah, among the best of our youths, sleeping on the floor of one of the botei medrash in Shanghai, under conditions so terrible that several dozen of the bnei yeshiva have already become ill, and even the healthy ones are expected to contract severe illnesses; may Hashem have mercy. It is as if we have fallen into a sea buffeted by severe storms. No one sees our suffering and wishes to help us, even with advice alone. We are like abandoned orphans among the stormy waves. If assistance does not come quickly from those who love the Torah, the institutions of aid in America, the yeshiva will be on the brink of destruction; may Hashem have mercy. We can find a home for the yeshiva only if we immediately pay the sum of 3000 United States dollars in cash, and we are completely at a loss. The monthly expenses for sustaining the yeshiva are also much greater than in Japan, and we require about 2500 dollars every month even when we limit our expenses as much as possible. This is the only one of the great centers of Torah in Poland and Lithuania that has remained intact; will the House of Israel abandon this citadel of Yiddishkeit, Torah, and yiras Shomayim to the greatest possible danger? True, the entire Jewish nation is drowning in a sea of blood and tears, and the call for help from Yavneh and its sages may be drowned out by the cries of our suffering brethren in every corner of Europe. Nevertheless, we turn our eyes to the shepherds of Israel, who are attentive to the fate of the Torah and Judaism, and we ask them to hurry to our aid.”
Rav Chaim urged the rov of Dallas to expedite his aid for the yeshiva: “We are confident that you will dedicate your attention to expediting the funding as much as possible and increasing it in accordance with the needs of the hour. May all the directors of the Federation receive all the brachos that the Torah bestows on those who uphold it and may the pleasantness of Hashem rest upon your tent throughout your days, and may we all experience the complete geulah soon.”
