Tough Times for Israel
Persecution is certainly the right word for the ongoing campaign against bnei yeshivos in this country. Now, I must acknowledge that the excuses are true. The judges of the Supreme Court, not Netanyahu, are really to blame, and the Knesset has very limited power to do anything about the crisis. No one seems to be able to rein in the attorney general, with her nonstop demands for all the yeshiva bochurim to be arrested. But no matter how one might try to justify the situation, the bottom line is that it is very bad. Allow me to remind you of what I have written on more than one occasion: Even if the Knesset manages to pass some sort of draft law, which will mean that Netanyahu has succeeded in imposing discipline on the insubordinate members of his party, there is no doubt that it will be challenged immediately in the Supreme Court. And if that happens, the judges will almost certainly decide that the law is unequal, unworthy, or simply a sham. Any law that is even remotely tolerable to the chareidi community will almost certainly be shot down by the court. And any law that the court accepts will almost certainly be one that chareidim will find unacceptable.
What will happen now? As you know, the UTJ party left the government Monday night. You may be wondering what can possibly be accomplished by leaving the government. What do the chareidim gain from quitting, or from a new election? What is the point of making such a move? Well, there are times for calculated moves, but there are other times when one must act simply to signal a protest and out of a sense that there are no alternatives.
Police to Arrest Yeshiva Bochurim in Chareidi Cities
There is one person in particular who has been working tirelessly to force the army to take action against yeshiva bochurim. That person is Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Is she doing this for the purpose of bringing down Netanyahu’s government, or does she somehow feel that it is her obligation? We cannot discern her motivations, but the bottom line is that she has been exerting unreasonable pressure on the army to do two things: to sent draft orders immediately to 55,000 yeshiva bochurim and kollel yungeleit, and to dispatch the military police to immediately arrest any of them who do not join the army. True, this would have to take some time, since everyone who receives a draft order is given a later date to appear at a draft office and then must undergo a medical examination and other testing, but Baharav-Miara wants the army to be prepared to arrest yeshiva bochurim as soon as the requisite time has passed.
Baharav-Miara is not playing a passive role. The attorney general is constantly calling new meetings to monitor the situation and has demanded regular updates from the army. In the most recent meeting, she demanded “increased enforcement” of the draft beginning this July, with “emphasis on shortening the waiting time for the issuance of a draft order and the declaration of draft dodging status, for the purpose of using the tools of enforcement more rapidly.” What sort of “tools of enforcement” does she have in mind? The army announced that they plan to erect roadblocks at the entrances to chareidi communities and to check the draft status of every yeshiva bochur who passes through. This is absolute insanity!
During the same meeting, General Bar-Kalifa, the head of the IDF Manpower Directorate, updated the attorney general about the progress of enforcement at Ben-Gurion Airport, as well as at other border crossings and checkpoints around the country, which is carried out with the collaboration of the Population Authority and the police. He also informed her that the army has tightened its collaboration with the police on random arrests of draft evaders. The outcome of the meeting was recorded as follows: “A policy was clarified for draft evaders who are caught while attempting to cross the border to be arrested for conscription. Principles were formulated regarding the use of discretion with respect to arrests and other actions at border crossings. As part of the enforcement plan, active operations guided by intelligence information will be carried out. According to the position of army officials, these actions are expected to increase the effectiveness of the handling of draft evaders and deserters.” At a meeting with chareidi journalists (which I, of course, did not attend) the army tried to solicit the cooperation of the chareidi media. Naturally, no one agreed to assist them.
The army later issued another statement: “In the month of September, in the context of the Fresh Start program, there will be a limited opportunity for draft evaders to appear for service without being arrested. The draft candidates who appear will begin their regular service immediately. After they have completed one year of service and met additional conditions, the criminal charges against them will be dropped, and they will receive only a suspended sentence for evading the draft.” This statement was directed at individuals who have received draft orders in the past and did not respond to them; in essence, the army was offering them a chance to clear their slates by enlisting immediately.
Chareidim Denounce the Attorney General
News of the army’s plans to hunt down yeshiva bochurim after sending out 54,000 draft notices drew fiery responses from the chareidi political leadership and gedolei Yisroel, as could only be expected. The first to react was MK Moshe Gafni of Degel HaTorah. “Baharav-Miara has declared herself the chief combatant against the Torah world, the people who learn Torah and sustain the Jewish nation,” he announced. “We will not allow anyone to prevent even one yeshiva bochur from learning Torah or to force a bochur to stop learning. The Jewish nation has long experience throughout history, both recently and in earlier times, with those who attempted to prevent Torah from being learned, and we know what happened to them in the end.”
Aryeh Deri of the Shas party responded, “The draconian instructions publicized today by the attorney general against Torah learners in the Jewish state are a disgrace and a loss of all sense. Every Jew who loves and respects the Torah should be appalled by the use of drastic measures appropriate for the lowest criminals against the bnei yeshivos who uphold the world with their Torah learning. We will not allow anyone to prevent any yeshiva bochur from dedicating himself to learning Torah.”
Yitzchok Goldkopf of Agudas Yisroel said, “The attorney general is continuing her persecution of Torah learners, but the fault lies with the government, which should have passed a draft law already, as it pledged to do in the coalition agreements. This would have put an end to this harassment. We expect the prime minister to honor the agreements and to immediately formalize the status of Torah learners in Eretz Yisroel.”
A Moving Hesped from the Father of Moshe Shmuel Noll
Last week, tragedy struck in Gaza once again, as five IDF soldiers were killed in an explosion in the vicinity of Beit Hanoun, including four in the Netzach Yehuda battalion of the Kfir Brigade. Fourteen other soldiers were injured in the incident, two of them seriously. The chareidi community had an especially close connection to this tragedy, since the Netzach Yehuda battalion consists of religious soldiers, and a number of chareidi families were involved. One of the five soldiers killed in this incident was Moshe Shmuel Noll, whose levayah was held in Beit Shemesh, the city of residence of his family, who immigrated to Israel years ago from South Africa. The murdered soldier’s 84-year-old father, wearing a hat and jacket, delivered a hesped that resonated on a deep emotional level. His terse speech lamented his son’s death while giving thanks to Hashem for the time they had spent together. The other soldiers’ families likewise sat shiva in chareidi communities: The families of Moshe Nissim Fresch, Meir Shimon Amar, and Noam Aharon Musgadian sat shiva in Yerushalayim, while the family of the fifth fatality, Binyomin Assulin, mourned in Haifa. These five young men have joined the ranks of the 441 soldiers killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
The tragic incident occurred shortly before 10:00 on Monday night, when a group of soldiers from the Netzach Yehuda battalion crossed a main thoroughfare in Beit Hanoun. Explosive devices were detonated against the soldiers, and the troops who rushed to evacuate them came under fire as well. The wounded soldiers were taken to Soroka, Ichilov, and Hadassah Ein Kerem hospitals. The army is still investigating the incident.
It is relevant to note that just two days earlier, MK Lapid had derided the chareidi politicians, accusing them of being able to “send soldiers to their deaths” calmly since no chareidim were killed. This was a malicious and venomous statement, and after this tragedy, a number of people turned his words against him, demanding, “Do you feel at ease now that the soldiers were from the chareidi community?”
A Murder in Gush Etzion, Another in Khan Yunis
Sadly, that incident wasn’t the only tragedy we experienced this past week. On Thursday afternoon, 22-year-old Shalev Zevuloni of Kiryat Arba was murdered in a terror attack in Gush Etzion, outside the shopping center at the Gush Junction. The terrorists who perpetrated the attack were shot to death by armed civilians in a gun battle. The two terrorists were then identified as officers in the Palestinian Authority’s police force.
The terrorists arrived at the site of the attack in a stolen car with a yellow Israeli license plate. Security officials estimate that they were familiar with the shopping center and were aware that it was typically busy at that hour. The terrorists waited in their car for a period of time before emerging and opening fire on their victim. This was the first deadly terror attack in the area of Yehuda and Shomron in nearly two months, since the attack near Burqin in which Mrs. Tzeela Gez was murdered while she was on the way to the hospital to give birth. (The baby was delivered but has since died.) The IDF pointed out that the past month has seen “only” about 60 incidents of terror in the area, a relatively low number that hasn’t been seen in a long time.
Meanwhile, the IDF suffered another fatality in Gaza, as Avrohom Azulai was murdered in Khan Yunis. Hamas publicized a video showing their operatives making an initial attempt to abduct him, and then murdering him after he fought back heroically. The victim, who was operating an excavator—a large vehicle that is used to help soldiers carry out demolitions—can be seen emerging from his vehicle after the terrorists shot him from a distance of only twenty to thirty meters. At that point, he was already seriously wounded, and the terrorists grabbed his gun and shot him again at point-blank range. The attempted abduction is not seen in the video, presumably because Hamas censored the footage of his battle with the terrorists, who stole his gun and fled from the scene.
The IDF’s initial investigation revealed what everyone already knows: The terrorists are making good use of the buildings left in ruins by IDF bombings or demolitions to take cover and fire rockets at Israeli soldiers at close range, and then to escape into tunnel shafts that the Israeli army has yet to uncover. The IDF has been destroying these buildings because they are used by terrorists who pose a threat to the Israeli forces; however, even the demolished buildings provide ample hiding places for the bloodthirsty terrorists. Another problem is that the IDF is using civilian equipment such as this excavator, which was sent to the front lines for lack of an alternative but was not properly fortified to protect its occupant from enemy fire. This week, Israel received a large shipment of D9 bulldozers from the United States, which serve the same purpose but can be more easily converted into fortified vehicles.
On Monday, three more soldiers were killed in Gaza.
In other news, two Palestinians were killed on Friday after a battle between terrorists and Israeli forces. One of the fatalities was an American citizen who was visiting the area, and I fear that this incident may become a pretext for venomous propaganda against Israel in general and Israeli settlers in particular. I hope that I will be proven wrong on that point.
The Rift Between the Government and the Attorney General
There is much that can be written about the court battles taking place in this country, although I am not sure how much of it will interest you. But here is the first story: As you are probably aware, the government decided to begin the process of dismissing the attorney general. Once the decision was made, a ministerial team was assigned to hold a hearing on the subject. Baharav-Miara responded that she had no intention of attending the hearing and that she considers the entire process unlawful—which, incidentally, means that she has permitted herself to make decisions when she is in a clear conflict of interest. This is despite the fact that she barred the prime minister from appointing a new director for the Shin Bet on the grounds that Netanyahu has a conflict of interest, since the Shin Bet is investigating his staff. The same consideration, for some reason, does not apply to the attorney general herself. In any event, the Supreme Court was petitioned to halt the process of Baharav-Miara’s dismissal, and Justice Sohlberg announced this week that those petitions had been rejected; he explained that the process isn’t nearly at its end, and there is a long time before such petitions will be appropriate. He also refused to cancel the dismissal altogether. This came as a blow to the attorney general and her cronies.
The court also issued a ruling on the petitions against the appointment of a new Shin Bet director. As you may recall, Netanyahu disagreed with the attorney general’s position barring him from making the appointment, and the court was petitioned against him. (This resulted in the court session that I wrote about, in which bereaved families and the families of hostages in Gaza were expelled from the courtroom.) The court responded by advising both sides, Netanyahu and Baharav-Miara, to reach a compromise. The government announced at first that it was not interested in a compromise and that the judges should simply issue a ruling; they presumably assumed that the judges wouldn’t have the temerity to strike down David Zini’s appointment. However, this week they decided to accept a compromise: The new head of the Shin Bet will enter his position in 60 days, given the likelihood that the Qatargate investigation will be completed by that time. If the investigation is still underway, he will be barred from involvement in it.
Personally, I don’t quite understand the rationale for this. The interim director of the Shin Bet, who was chosen from within the agency’s ranks, was appointed by the prime minister as well. Why is that decision acceptable, whereas Netanyahu’s appointment of Zini is somehow tainted by bias?
On a related note, if you would like an illustration of the deep rift between the government and the attorney general, who is supposed to serve and represent it, take this into consideration: On Sunday, a series of proposed laws submitted by Knesset members were approved. This is the standard procedure at the beginning of every week, when the ministers receive a list of bills submitted by Knesset members and determine their positions on the potential laws. In this case, two of the bills that were approved were opposed by the attorney general, who claimed that they were unlawful. One of the bills proposed to split the position of attorney general into two separate posts (attorney general and general prosecutor) while the other would give the government the authority to fire high-ranking officials such as the chief of staff of the IDF. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is of the firm opinion that these two bills are somehow contradicted by Israeli law. When President Trump spoke about the deep state and the rule of bureaucracy, he knew exactly what he was talking about….
Jews Spying for Iran
I must mention a phenomenon in Israel that defies explanation: Israelis serving as agents for Iran.
In truth, this isn’t exactly a matter of espionage, and the suspects’ actions sometimes seem more like a child’s game of cops and robbers than serious treason, but the state is not willing to view this phenomenon with anything less than the utmost severity, and one might say that they are correct about that.
The cases all seem to follow a similar pattern: An Israeli communicates with someone via text messages, offering to perform tasks in exchange for monetary remuneration, which will come through various digital means. At first, the Israeli agent is asked to carry out some minor tasks, such as spraying anti-Netanyahu graffiti or leaving a dead cat in front of a specific address. After these Israelis, who are typically either extremely naïve or in desperate need of money, are drawn into the Iranian web, the stakes are raised, and they are instructed to commit more serious offenses such as burning IDF uniforms or pictures of Netanyahu, or even photographing secret installations.
In one extremely serious case, Alexander Granovsky, a 29-year-old resident of Petach Tikvah, was arrested at the beginning of this month on suspicion of spying for Iran. Granovsky had been employed by Iranian agents and carried out a serious of tasks for them in exchange for monetary payment, including setting fire to a large number of cars, gathering information, photographing the home of former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, relaying the phone numbers of senior figures in the defense establishment to his handlers, gathering information on high-ranking IDF officers, and preparing Molotov cocktails. Granovsky is also suspected of taking pictures of strategic facilities and transmitting the images to his Iranian handlers in exchange for money. He was also instructed to purchase ammunition with his handlers’ assistance. He was paid hundreds of shekels for every act of spraying graffiti and thousands of shekels for every arson. Most of the crimes were committed in cities in central Israel including Raanana, Chadera, Rosh Ha’ayin, and Ashdod. In one case, he was asked to set fire to a police car and an ambulance, but he refused. “I am not willing to kill people,” he told his handlers. “However, I am willing to shoot and set fire to cars.”
Granovsky’s arrest is just the latest in a long series of arrests of Israeli citizens suspected of spying for Iran. To date, most of the suspects have been immigrants from Russia and Ukraine, as well as Arabs; however, some of them were ordinary Jews. One such suspect, 73-year-old Motti Maman of Ashkelon, let out a sigh of relief when he was arrested. “Thank you for arresting me,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Unfortunately, some of the suspects were religious youths who were enticed by the prospect of earning easy cash and realized too late that they were working for a hostile force. One mother wrote to me, “I am the mother of…. He was one of the first to fall into the trap of temptation to make easy money by becoming an Iranian spy, as they have come to be called. For spraying graffiti, these people have been deprived of their freedom and their individuality. He was arrested in Elul, and our world came to a halt since that time. There isn’t enough room on paper to express our feelings of helplessness and endless pain. Our constant struggle to prove his innocence has been fruitless and unanswered…. I would like to ask you to help arrange for his religious needs to be met. He has a lawyer working on his living conditions, but she does not deal with religious matters. The tefillin he is using at this time belong to the prison chaplain; his own tefillin disappeared somewhere in the Shin Bet cellars, and we do not know how to retrieve them. We wish that he could have a tallis and tefillin belonging to us. Boruch Hashem, Rav Kalman Ber [the Ashkenazic chief rabbi] helped him procure a Gemara, but he has recently been deprived of seforim and is begging for them. He is also begging for tzitzis, but to no avail. Perhaps you can help him.” This story is certainly chilling.
Passions Run High Over Potential Hostage Deal
United States envoy Steve Witkoff is leading the push for a new hostage deal. The latest outline would call for the release of 28 hostages, ten living and 18 deceased, during a 60-day ceasefire period, while humanitarian aid to Gaza will be increased. Many of the hostages’ families are appalled at the thought that someone will have to choose among the remaining captives, deciding who will be freed and who will remain in captivity. For now, progress on the deal has stalled, and Hamas is blaming Israel.
As soon as the deal was first floated, while Hamas was still “considering” the proposal, demonstrations erupted both in favor of the deal and against it. Kaplan protestors and anti-Netanyahu protestors gathered to hold signs and shout loudly for the government to adopt the deal and accept Hamas’s terms, and to halt the fighting immediately to sign an agreement. On the other side of the divide, some of the hostages’ families passionately called for the government to reject any partial deal and to demand the immediate release of all the hostages, and not to stop the fighting in Gaza. Now, here is some food for thought: Which of these two groups do you think caused Hamas to harden its stance, and which of them actually contributed to progress on an agreement?
On Sunday, someone confronted Netanyahu with the media’s claims that he and his government have been refusing to accept a deal. He replied, “There is nothing new about that. They always buy into the Hamas propaganda, but the truth is that we did accept the deal. We accepted Witkoff’s proposal, and then we accepted Hamas’s version, but Hamas turned it down. They want to remain in Gaza, they want us to leave, and they want to arm themselves again and position themselves to attack us again. I cannot accept that. I am determined to bring the hostages home. I meet with the families and I recognize their pain, but I will not give up on the goal of eliminating Hamas.”
“But the majority of the public is in favor of a deal,” the reporter objected.
“Of course,” Netanyahu replied. “I, too, am in favor of a deal. But no one is telling them the other side of the coin. Ask them if they want a deal that leaves Hamas in power and that makes it possible for them to kill again. The public does not want that. If they were asked this question, the numbers would change. We must insist on destroying Hamas, and that is exactly what I will do. I will not give up on bringing the hostages home, and I will not give up on destroying Hamas.”
In the Rehab Department at Tel Hashomer
Last weekend, I heard a drosha from Rav Yigal Cohen at the orthopedic rehabilitation department at Tel Hashomer Hospital, where I also met Itzik Saidian and Meir Knafo. I was a guest of Rav Moshe Pincus, who adopted the cause of the wounded soldiers, and I met Shuki Brif, the “father of the soldiers,” as well. All of this made for a heart-pounding experience that I would like to share with you.
Last week, I wrote an article about Rav Avrohom Shmulevitz in which I mentioned the story of a bochur from Yeshivas Mir in Modiin Illit who had become ill and traveled to America for medical treatment. The bochur was assisted by a philanthropist, who granted him the use of his helicopter to make the trip to the hospital and offered to let him use it for an aerial tour of New York as well. The bochur told his benefactor that his desire was to return to his yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel for Shavuos, and the philanthropist generally sponsored two plane tickets, one for the bochur and one for his father. Rav Avrohom was impressed by the philanthropist’s sensitivity to the fact that it was important to the bochur to spend Shavuos in his yeshiva and that it was a cause worthy of a donation.
Last Tuesday, I traveled to Tel Hashomer Hospital to hear a drosha from Rav Yigal Cohen, one of Eretz Yisroel’s most prominent darshonim, who was addressing a group of wounded soldiers. My host was Rav Moshe Pincus, who is involved in extensive outreach to the soldiers. Rav Pincus came up with an idea: He runs a kollel named Ohel Yiskah (for his late mother) in Petach Tikvah, which includes a kiruv program known as Kirvas Shimshon (after his late grandfather, Rav Shimshon Pincus). Together with yungeleit, Rav Moshe visits the rehab department for wounded soldiers in the hospital every day. Their impact has been inestimable; the doctors are filled with awe, and the soldiers are suffused with gratitude. The initiative has developed into a huge project known as Lev L’Giborei Yisroel. Rav Yigal’s drosha was another element of Rav Moshe’s initiative, and he invited me to attend it. The auditorium in the rehab ward was filled with soldiers when I arrived, each with his own injuries. It was an incredible experience, and I hope to write about the drosha, the yungeleit, and the soldiers at much greater length in the near future.
What I wanted to tell you, however, was that I met a remarkable man there whom I observed circulating among the soldiers, greeting them warmly and embracing them. When I asked about him, Rav Moshe Pincus said, “Haven’t you heard of Shuki Brif? He left his business and all of his pursuits when the war began, and he has been dedicating all his time to helping soldiers.”
I soon discovered that Shuki Brif had recently returned to the country after taking a group of soldiers on a weeklong trip to Manhattan. Naturally, I struck up a conversation with him and tried to learn more about him. Shuki did not want to speak about himself, but I asked him to tell me about the impetus for his efforts.
“Six years ago, my son Binyomin Asher, whom we called Benny, died from cancer,” he revealed. “He was a talmid in the Mir yeshiva in Brachfeld. Since that time, I have been searching for ways to do chessed.” Shuki revealed that his son had also been endowed with a giving nature. The bereaved father began visiting oncology wards and then moved on to other wards in the hospital. Since this past Simchas Torah, he has virtually adopted the wounded soldiers as another of his chessed initiatives. “I lost one child, but I gained over a thousand children,” he said.
Shuki visits the soldiers every day and is dedicated to helping them in every area. A month ago, he received an award from the minister of health.
Suddenly, realization dawned on me. “Shuki,” I said, “your son learned in Mir Brachfeld? Listen to this story that I heard about Rav Avrohom Shmulevitz!” I repeated the story about the bochur who returned to Eretz Yisroel for Shavuos, and then I asked if it was his son.
“Yes,” Shuki replied. “That story is about us. The two tickets were for my son and me. We returned to Israel for Shavuos and then resumed his treatments in New York.”
I had another deeply moving encounter in Tel Hashomer, this time with two wounded soldiers. One was Itzik Saidian, whom I had only heard about, and the other was Meir Knafo, whom I met not long before at the Yerushalayim home of Sander Gerber, the American baal chessed. Saidian fought in Operation Protective Edge in 2014, when he narrowly escaped death in the disastrous explosion of an armored personnel carrier and was left suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. In April 2021, Saidian set himself on fire outside the Ministry of Health to protest what he felt was the lack of care for soldiers suffering from psychological trauma. The country was deeply shaken by his actions and thousands took to the streets in protest. The Ministry of Defense decided to launch a reform initiative, and the Knesset passed the Itzik Saidian Law. SinceOctober 7th, everyone has agreed that psychological trauma and combat stress are sufficient reasons for a former soldier to be classified as disabled and that IDF veterans suffering from such trauma should be fully entitled to government funding.
In the auditorium, I noticed Rav Yigal Cohen speaking with a young man seated before him who looked severely distressed. When I heard him say, “Itzik, you are wonderful and I loved you,” it clicked for me: That man was Itzik Saidian.
Meir Knafo, a 38-year-old resident of Petach Tikvah, was severely wounded in a clash with Houthi terrorists who infiltrated across the Jordanian border south of the Dead Sea. The terrorists were eliminated in a gun battle, and two of the Israeli soldiers were wounded, one lightly and the other seriously. Knafo has been spending his time in and out of Hadassah and Tel Hashomer Hospitals since that incident. This brought him in contact with Brif and with Rav Pincus and his yungeleit.
I had a long conversation with him and hope to share it with you soon.
