Tensions within the Israeli government coalition continue to mount, as United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas maintain a coordinated boycott of all Knesset votes, demanding progress on legislation to secure continued draft exemptions for yeshiva bochurim. The protest began last week after a senior IDF official, Brigadier General Shai Taib, warned of a growing shortage of manpower in the army, asserting that the IDF is short 12,000 soldiers—including 7,000 for combat roles. While the army’s concerns were presented in technical terms, many saw the comments as a signal toward renewed pressure on the chareidi community to increase enlistment. In response, UTJ suspended its participation in all votes, effectively paralyzing parts of the coalition’s legislative agenda.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who sports a long track record of incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric, is now throwing her weight—and donor list—behind Zohran Mamdani’s quixotic campaign for New York City mayor. In a fundraising text blast reported by the New York Post, Tlaib rallied support for the New Yorkers for Lower Costs super PAC, a group aligned with Mamdani, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist currently serving in the New York State Assembly. Both Tlaib and Mamdani are vocal advocates of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement—a campaign widely condemned as antisemitic by mainstream Jewish organizations. Mamdani, who has roots in Indian and Ugandan heritage, has made headlines in recent months for his inflammatory attacks on Israel.

The ballistic missile launched on Sunday morning by the Houthis from Yemen towards Israel evaded two layers of advanced aerial defense systems and fell in a field near Terminal 3 near Ben Gurion Airport. The first interception was carried out using an interceptor from the Israeli Arrow 3 long-range air defense, but it failed to hit the target. Another interceptor was launched from the American THAAD system. According to senior officials in Israel, the missile that hit Ben Gurion was not a new or particularly advanced missile, but a known model that has been intercepted in the past. The IDF is conducting an investigation to examine the incident, including an assessment of whether the interception failure was due to a technical malfunction or human error.

Israeli security officials said that Israel will respond forcefully to the Houthi ballistic missile attack that hit Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday morning, Kan News reported. In recent months, Israel has refrained from attacking Yemen at the request of the United States. An Israeli source even claimed that “every day since the start of the US operation, the American attacks are about 10 times what we can do in Yemen in a year.” But in light of the escalation in attacks from Yemen over the weekend, including four ballistic missiles and two UAVs, including the hit on Ben Gurion Airport, Israel is no longer willing to ignore the attacks.

Israel has denied involvement in the massive explosion ripped through Iran’s largest port on Saturday, killing at least 28 people and injuring over 1,000 others. The blast shook the Port of Shahid Rajaee in Bandar Abbas, a critical hub on the Strait of Hormuz. Thick plumes of smoke towered over the strategic facility after the blast, which initial reports suggested may have involved chemical materials linked to ballistic missile production. Iranian officials have remained tight-lipped about the true cause, saying only that the explosion had no connection to the country’s oil industry. Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management agency, told local media that “chemicals inside the shipping containers” were to blame.

President Donald Trump said the United States would “willingly” join Israel in launching a military assault on Iran if nuclear negotiations collapse, though he still holds out hope for a diplomatic resolution. Speaking to Time Magazine in a wide-ranging interview reflecting on the first 100 days of his second term, Trump addressed mounting tensions with Tehran, his recent diplomatic outreach, and the growing pressure from Jerusalem to take action. “If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack,” Trump said, making it clear he’s not afraid of confrontation should Iran fail to come to terms. The interview follows reports that Israel recently proposed a series of coordinated strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

A Hamas supporter was seen wearing a mock suicide vest at an anti-Israel protest in Manhattan. The vest is reminiscent of the suicide vests worn by terrorists to murder and maim Israelis during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. And of course, the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City were also carried out by suicide attackers. The video shows the would-be suicide bomber with other pro-Hamas supporters arguing with counter-protesters. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The last person convicted in Germany for crimes committed during the Holocaust, Irmgard Furchner, died at the age of 99, a German court announced on Monday. In 2022, Furchner, who served as a secretary at the Nazi concentration camp Stutthof during World War II, received a two-year suspended sentence for complicity in the murders of more than 10,000 people. Her trial marked the first prosecution of a woman in Germany for Nazi-era crimes in decades. The Stutthof concentration camp, located near Gdansk in occupied Poland, was established by Nazi Germany in 1939. Around 65,000 people lost their lives at Stutthof, many of them non-Jewish Poles, as well as Jews deported from Warsaw, Bialystok, and forced-labor camps in the occupied Baltic states.

A growing number of Americans now view Israel in a negative light, according to a new Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday, with 53% expressing an unfavorable opinion of the Jewish state — rising from 42% in March 2022. The survey also found that confidence in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains low, with just 32% of Americans trusting him to handle world affairs appropriately, while 52% say they have little or no confidence in his leadership. Partisan divides were evident in the results: 69% of Democrats hold an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% in the 2022 survey. Among Republicans, the number of those viewing Israel negatively increased to 37%, compared to 27% three years ago. The shift has been especially pronounced among younger adults.

OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, is a medical diagnosis that gets thrown around a lot in colloquial speech, especially around Pesach time. We take Hilchos Pesach seriously, and rightfully so! OCD is not the same as being careful in Halacha, and it’s crucial to distinguish between the two. Because the term is so misused and misunderstood, it can be helpful and important to distinguish between what is and isn’t OCD. Many people will say things like “I’m so OCD” when referring to being hyper-organized or particular about the way they do things. (You line up your clothes in your closet in order of color? You’re so OCD!) This is not OCD and can be both invalidating to people who are truly struggling and just generally misinform the public about what to be aware of.