Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has drawn a red line regarding the controversial draft law, warning that his party will boycott all Knesset votes if no agreement is reached by the start of the summer session.
Speaking in an interview with HaDerech, the official Shas newspaper, Deri made his position unequivocally clear: “By the opening of the Knesset’s summer session, we must reach an internal agreement on all the core issues of the draft law — or we will refrain from participating in votes.”

A call for rachamei Shamayim has gone out across the Torah world following a significant deterioration in the condition of HaGaon HaRav Meir Mazuz, Rosh Yeshivas Kisei Rachamim.
Rav Mazuz, 80, was hospitalized earlier this week at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah due to ongoing weakness. His condition worsened overnight.
All are asked to daven for Rav Meir Nissim ben Kamasna.
{Matzav.com Israel}

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Yosef Atik z”l, from the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood of Yerushalayim, just one month before his bar mitzvah.
Yosef battled a difficult illness for close to two years with great strength and emunah. Despite his suffering, he remained devoted to his learning and davening.
A child of noble lineage, Yosef was the son of Rav Shimon Hillel Atik and a grandson of the renowned gaon Rav Yitzchok Zev Atik zt”l and Rav Yaakov Yehuda Salant. He was also a great-grandson of Gedolei Yerushalayim — Rav Mendel Atik zt”l, Rav Moshe Salant zt”l, and Rav Chaim Uri Freund, a member of the Badatz of the Eidah Hachareidis.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A dramatic new and comprehensive regulation regarding beard growth in the IDF is expected to take effect in the coming days.

The United States officially began enforcing a wide array of new tariffs early this morning, fulfilling President Trump’s sweeping trade policy that now affects close to 90 countries — most notably China, which has been hit with a staggering 104% tariff rate.
These newly implemented tariffs follow an earlier 10% baseline rate that went into effect on April 5. The latest round applies both to longstanding U.S. allies and rival nations, part of what the administration calls a broader strategy to reset global trade relationships.
China received the highest duties after retaliating with a 34% tariff on American exports — itself a response to the 34% levy Trump had previously imposed. That tit-for-tat prompted Trump to up the ante with an even harsher penalty.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In broad daylight, in the town of Shechem which is under full PA control, the IDF’s undercover unit operates as if it were staging a scene from the Fauda

Undercover and special forces units operated in Shechem on Tuesday and arrested Mahmoud al-Bana, the commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, who has been wanted by Israel for many years. On Wednesday, Shechem residents published security camera footage of the dramatic arrest. In the footage, the Israeli forces are seen arriving in two vehicles and blocking the area. Al-Bana tried to flee and the Israeli forces opened fire on him, causing him to collapse near a wall. The forces then dragged him to one of the vehicles, ending the arrest operation in less than three minutes. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The condition of HaGaon HaRav Meir Mazuz, Rosh Yeshivas Kisei Rachamim, has deteriorated and the public is asked to daven for his refuah. The Rosh Yeshivah was hospitalized in recent days in Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah. HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Amar and HaGaon HaRav Dovid Yosef issued a call to the public to daven for the Rosh Yeshivah’s refuah sheleimah. The Rosh Yeshivah’s name for tefilla is מאיר ניסים בן כמסאנה b’toch sha’ar cholei Yisrael. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

For the first time in the IDF’s history, all soldiers will be allowed to grow beards without the need for special exemptions as the IDF prepares to approve several changes to its dress code for soldiers on Wednesday. The move was led by the Torat Lechima organization, Likud MK Keti Shitrit, and Gilad ‘Mezukan,” one of the prominent activists in the struggle for granting a blanket exemption for soldiers to grow beards. The new arrangement allows soldiers to grow a beard regardless of religious identity as long as it is neat and in accordance with proper military appearance [no stubble]. “The IDF is a Jewish army,” stated the Torat Lechima organization.

Security officials confirmed in internal discussions that the IDF has destroyed only about a quarter of Hamas’s terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip, Channel 12 News reported on Wednesday morning. According to the report, defense officials also estimate that there is a significant number of smuggling tunnels that cross from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. The presence of these tunnels lies behind Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor. About a month and a half ago, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said that Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor due to the threat of smuggling between Egypt and Gaza. “The Philadelphi  Corridor will remain a buffer zone just like in Lebanon and Syria,” Katz emphasized.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants communities to stop fluoridating water, and he is setting the gears of government in motion to help make that happen. Kennedy this week said he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoridation in communities nationwide. And he said he’s assembling a task force of health experts to study the issue and make new recommendations. At the same time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it would review new scientific information on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water. The EPA sets the maximum level allowed in public water systems. Here’s a look at how reversing fluoride policy has become an action item under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu warned on Tuesday about the potential perils of a nuclear deal with Iran, ahead of taking off for Israel following his meeting the previous day with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
“We agree that Iran will not have nuclear weapons. This can be done by agreement, but only if this agreement is Libyan-style: They go in, blow up the installations, dismantle all of the equipment under American supervision and carried out by America—this would be good,” he said.
“The second possibility—that will not be—is that they drag out the talks, and then there is the military option. Everyone understands this. We spoke about this at length,” he added.

In response to the surge in antisemitic incidents on college campuses following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, Congresswomen Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) have reintroduced the University Accountability Act. The legislation aims to impose strict penalties on higher education institutions that fail to protect the civil rights of their students in the face of antisemitic discrimination or violence. Under current federal law, colleges and universities found in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin—typically face corrective actions designed to bring them back into compliance.

Some 100 people, ranging in age from about 8 to 102, huddled for warmth as they braved 40-degree temperatures on a damp day at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to watch, as speaker after speaker put it, Pfc. Adolph Hanf and Pvt. David Moser “come home.”
Neither of the Jewish soldiers, who served in World War I and have been dead for more than 100 years, underwent a geographic relocation. But with the help of Operation Benjamin, a donor-supported nonprofit, Moser (1898-1919) and Hanf (1884-1918) received new gravestones with Magein Dovids rather than Latin crosses.

This Pesach, You Can Be the Reason a Family Feels Joy Again https://abcharity.org/campaign.php?id=2472&l_id=LHanYM484vUXNUKpJFsIn the quiet corners of the Beis Yisroel neighborhood in yerushleim  Behind the closed doors of worn-down apartments… There are families — ehrliche Yidden — who simply don’t have what they need for Yom Tov. No matzos. No food. No joy. Just worry, silence, and the pain of parents who can’t provide for their children the basic yom tov needs  https://abcharity.org/campaign.php?id=2472&l_id=LHanYM484vUXNUKpJFs But you can change that.

New York’s $9 congestion toll on drivers entering the most traffic-snarled parts of Manhattan appears likely to remain through the summer and possibly into the fall as a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s authority to end the program moves forward. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who called the toll a “slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” had originally set a deadline of March 21 for the state to turn off the tolling program. When state officials refused, federal authorities set a new deadline of April 20. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had said the state intended to ignore that deadline, too. Now, though, the two sides in the legal fight have decided to slow things down.

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