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US President Donald Trump called into question whether or not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would run for reelection in the upcoming Knesset elections, according to a Tuesday report from ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

“He’s had an amazing career,” Trump told Karl in a phone call. “Does he want to continue? Because, you know, he’s a wartime prime minister.”

“We will very shortly win the war one way or the other,” Trump continued, “and you know he’s a wartime prime minister.”

“That’s ok,” he added, “just like I’m a wartime president.”

Trump told Netanyahu not to escalate with Iran or else ‘you could be left alone very soon’ 

The US president also recently told Israel’s Channel 12 about a conversation he had with Netanyahu in light of tensions between Israel and Iran.

“I told Bibi, you’d better be careful what you do, because you could be left alone against Iran very soon,” Trump said.

On Sunday, Trump asked Netanyahu to avoid striking Iran in retaliation for the recent Iranian missile attack on Israel. That conversation ended without a clear agreement, and Netanyahu did not tell Trump his final decision on the matter, according to a Monday report by Channel 12.

Netanyahu ‘won’t have any choice’ but to accept Iran deal, Trump tells FT

The US president also told the Financial Times on Sunday that Netanyahu “won’t have any choice” but to accept a deal with Iran.
“I call the shots. I call all the shots,” said Trump. “He doesn’t call the shots.”

‘Together, we will bring safety to the North’

Netanyahu released a pre-recorded press statement on Monday evening, in which he confirmed that he and Trump were in contact but did not go into detail. 

“I told Trump: ‘Together, we will bring safety to the North,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu’s coalition criticizes cancellation of Lebanon strikes after Trump’s intervention

The latest round of Iranian missile attacks on Israel came immediately after IDF strikes on Dahiyeh, a suburb of Beirut, in Lebanon on Sunday. 

One week earlier, the prime minister came under fire for Israel’s decision to cancel an earlier round of strikes on Beirut at Trump’s behest. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a partner in Netanyahu’s coalition, sharply criticized the move, stating that “This is the time to tell our friend, President Trump – ‘no’.”

Former IDF chief of staff and Yashar! Party leader Gadi Eisenkot called Trump’s directive “a humiliating demand, one that is blatantly unreasonable.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of behaving as though Israel were a protectorate state of the US.

Keshet Neev and Danya Saperstein contributed to this report.

Capt. Shahar Gamla, 23, was critically injured by an explosive drone in Lebanon and later died from his injuries at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, the military announced on Saturday.

Following confirmation of his death, his family requested that his organs be donated, enabling several patients awaiting transplants to be saved or see their conditions improved.

According to the National Transplant Center, the transplants took place on Sunday at multiple hospitals. Gamla’s heart was transplanted into a 54-year-old man at Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva, and his lungs were transplanted into a 47-year-old man at the same hospital.

His liver was transplanted into a 69-year-old man at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, while a liver lobe was transplanted into a 7-year-old girl at Schneider Children’s Medical Center. His kidneys were transplanted into a 37-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman at Beilinson.

Gamla’s corneas have not yet been transplanted, and his skin was donated to the National Skin Bank, which treats burn victims. Post-mortem skin donation is used in cases of severe burns or other skin injuries, providing temporary or therapeutic coverage for large areas of the skin.

‘There is nothing greater than organ donation’

Leah, Shahar’s mother, said after the organ donation: “There is nothing greater than organ donation; it lets Shahar live on in other people. With joy and great love.”

Three people, including one Border Police officer, were arrested on Monday on suspicion of having attempted murder one month before, police announced on Tuesday. 

The investigation revealed that the officer, a man in his 20s, and two of his family members, who are both officers in the IDF, had an ambush planned out in order to carry out the murder on May 2 in southern Israel, where they live.

Police noted that the Border Police officer had been absent from his post for about a year.

All three suspects are Israeli security officials

The other two suspects include a man in his 40s who holds the rank of colonel in the IDF reserves, and a man in his 20s currently serving voluntarily in the IDF following his mandatory service.

The three were brought in for questioning on Monday, and the police officer’s detention was extended by nine days. Investigators extended the detention of the other two suspects for three days. 

The investigation is still ongoing, police said. 

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service announced Tuesday that an 18-year-old man has been charged in connection with the March arson attack that destroyed four ambulances owned by Hatzalah, a Jewish volunteer emergency service.

Subhan Ahmed, a British national, was charged on Monday with “assisting an offender” in connection with the arson.

The ambulances were set ablaze in the early morning of March 23 in Golders Green, a heavily Jewish neighborhood in London. The incident spurred increased patrols in Jewish communities.

The charge is the latest development in an investigation being led by the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit.

Four suspects already charged in arson attack

Four others have already been charged in connection with the attack.

Three British nationals, 20-year-old Hamza Iqbal, 19-year-old Rehan Khan, and 18-year-old Judex Atshatshi, along with a 17-year-old dual British and Pakistani national, were all charged in April with “committing arson, destroying or damaging property, and being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.”

The four have remained in custody ahead of a trial planned for January. Ahmed, meanwhile, was released ahead of a June 16 court date.

The ambulance arsons came at the early edge of a wave of incidents that have put London Jews on edge and induced the city’s police force to step up their presence in Jewish communities. The incidents have included multiple incendiary devices placed near synagogues as well as the stabbing in April of two Jewish men in Golders Green. The Metropolitan Police reported last week that antisemitic hate crimes in the capital rose 72% in May.

Following the announcement of Ahmed’s charge, the Community Security Trust, a Jewish organization, thanked the police and the Crown Prosecution Service “for their ongoing work investigating this attack and other arson incidents targeting the Jewish community.”

It added in a statement, “These are very serious allegations, and it is right that those responsible are being held accountable.”

Egyptian political analyst Magdi Khalil, founder of the Middle East Freedom Forum, gave a sharp critique of Lebanon’s political collapse during his current affairs program on Friday.

Khalil attributed the country’s ongoing crisis to the failure of Lebanese leaders, including Samir Geagea of the Lebanese Forces and former president Michel Aoun, as well as the influence of regional actors like Syria, Iran, and Turkey.

He argued that decades of political mismanagement, alliances with Hezbollah, and foreign interference have eroded Lebanon’s sovereignty, weakened its Christian communities, and left the country vulnerable to further destabilization.

At the beginning of his remarks, Khalil presented the central question, “From Nasser to Hassan Nasrallah, how was Lebanon destroyed?”

“Since the establishment of the state of Lebanon, the reasons for the current destruction of Lebanon that we see can be summed up in three words: Palestine, Islam, and Westernization.”

Arab-Muslim countries saw Lebanon, similar to Israel, as a target

He emphasized that “there is no difference in the adoption of this ideology by the Arab-Muslim peoples, their rulers, or Islamic movements. They are all united around these three pillars in their opposition to Lebanon.”

According to him, the country’s inherent contradictions created an inevitable clash. “The Christians in Lebanon have a vision of prosperity, and all these currents stand against them with an ideology of terror.”

Khalil explained that Lebanese sovereignty posed a cultural threat to its surroundings, “There is one single country in the Middle East where Islam is not the state religion… The very existence of Lebanon as a secular identity, a bridge to the West, and its Christian character, bothered the entire Arab region.”

“The Arab-Muslim countries saw Lebanon from the beginning, similar to Israel, as a target. And they failed with Israel, but they succeeded in destroying Lebanon. This is the story of Lebanon.” He adds in a dramatic aside that “were it not for the existence of Israel, Lebanon would have been considered Israel, but the Arab region targeted Lebanon and Israel, Israel primarily, and Lebanon secondarily.”

The practical destruction, according to Khalil, began with the surrender of sovereignty to the Palestinians. “Instead of being an independent state, the Cairo Agreement made Lebanon subordinate to the Arab-Islamic issue toward Israel, as an appendage, which is, of course, ruin!”

As a result, “Yasser Arafat and his gang took over Lebanon from 1971 to 1982, until Israel expelled them to Tunisia and saved the Christians from them.”

During those years, regional alliances were directed against the Western minority in the country. “Everyone united against them – Druze, Shiites, Sunnis, Arab Palestinians united to defeat the Christian spirit in Lebanon! Were it not for Israel’s entry in 1982, the Christians in Lebanon would have been destroyed, as the late great Lebanese poet Said Akl said.”

Afterward, under the Syrian occupation, the mechanisms of control became institutionalized. “During the period of Hafez al-Assad, they did something called ‘the unity of paths’… everyone agreed on the legitimacy of Hezbollah to fight Israel.”

Khalil moves on to describe recent years and notes that “by eroding Hezbollah’s capabilities and eliminating Hassan Nasrallah… Israel once again saved Lebanon and weakened the Shiites in Lebanon in 2024, 2025, and 2026.”

Turkey entering Lebanon is an existential threat to the nation

At the same time, he warned of a new and dangerous political development, pointing an accusing finger toward the leader of the “Lebanese Forces.”

“I warn Samir Geagea, he wants to tie Lebanon to Saudi Arabia’s money… this is dangerous, Saudi Arabia will give legitimacy to Turkey to take over Lebanon through Ahmad al-Sharaa… and the Turkish period will begin.”

Khalil elaborated on Turkey’s threat, adding that “Turkey is carrying out settler-colonialism! It is currently carrying out settlement in northern Syria, and performing ‘Turkification’… when Turkey enters, it does not leave.”

Meanwhile, Khalil attacks the historic Christian leadership that allowed Lebanon to turn into a terrorist state, launching sharp arrows at the former president.

“Michel Aoun did not care about Lebanon or the Christians… he took the money and reached out to Hezbollah and Iran and became corrupt… and the same thing applies to Emile Lahoud, he was a puppet in Syria’s hands, therefore what Samir Geagea says is very dangerous.”

He mentions the reckless abandonment of the south of the country.

“After Israel’s departure from Lebanon in the year 2000, the Christian Lebanese president refused to send the army to southern Lebanon to take the place of the Israeli forces… he said, ‘I will not send the Lebanese army to be a guard for Israel,’ but you are protecting your own country!”

Khalil rules painfully that “this Emile Lahoud is a Christian puppet who was in the hands of Syria and cheered for Hezbollah… the Lebanese state officially became a partner in Hezbollah’s terrorism!” This partnership also trickled into the Arab public sphere, when “The Arab media cheered for the 2006 war, Sunnis, Shiites, and Druze cheered together for Hezbollah! The only voice that said Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and that it is destroying Lebanon in the 2006 war was me!”

Khalil revealed the methods of operation of the Shiite regime in Beirut. 

“The dangerous criminal Nabih Berri locked down the parliament for years, keeping the keys in his pocket, and by military force, he would not let anyone enter until he brought a submissive puppet of Hezbollah.”

The West, international community, adopted a distorted narrative of Lebanon

He also directs a finger of blame toward the international community. “The Western countries, and especially France, gave legitimacy to Hezbollah! This is a dangerous terrorist organization, and you give it political legitimacy?”

The West adopted a distorted narrative, he believes.

“They turned Hezbollah and Hezbollah’s weapons into a sacred symbol that must not be touched! Opposition to these weapons and this terrorism became national treason, and contact with Israel is considered a felony even though Hezbollah itself was in contact with Israel.”

Khalil presents a harsh and merciless internal critique of Christian society in Lebanon, by adding that “The Christians made mistakes in Lebanon. Every Christian currently looks for a country to fund it and to which it will be subordinate… many of them do not marry, or bring only one child, so of course their numerical strength is eroding.”

“The Christians in Lebanon are destroying themselves and their culture! They completely opened up to mixed marriages… people from the high class marry Muslims, while the Muslim is very rigid regarding marriage to a Christian woman.”

“In our case, they are forced to kidnap our girls in Egypt, but we do not marry our daughters to Muslims. This is a religious belief and an identity as Copts.” Khalil states, “In Egypt, the state helps them kidnap Coptic girls, but in Lebanon, of their own free will, they go and marry Muslims… this is a severe point of weakness among the Christians in Lebanon,” he noted, in comparison to the society he came from.

In addition, he criticized the focus on cultural superficiality.

“In recent decades, the Christians focused on the entertainment industry at the expense of the basic things that are important to Christians in Lebanon. Instead of solving the distress they are in, they established an entertainment industry to entertain the Arabs.”

Politically, the situation is no less difficult. “Part of the Christians joined the extreme left against their own people… the Lebanese Christians reject the 2026 frameworks in Washington, they rejected them exactly as Iran rejected them and Hezbollah rejected them!”

He concluded by addressing these ‘destructive internal alliances,’ saying that “Until now, Michel Aoun and others obey Hezbollah… until now, the Frangieh family is with Hezbollah and with Syria – this is ruin, ruin, literally! The Christians are operating against their own interests and making an agreement with terror!”

Khalil, a political and strategic analyst on international affairs, uses his official platform to engage in an intellectual struggle against Islamic extremism in the Middle East.

Moriah Chen from the Hidabroot website published the following questionnaire for anyone who wants to gain a clearer picture of themselves and of their mission in the world: 

 1. What would you do for free? Think about the activities you do without noticing the passage of time. What makes you forget to eat or sleep? What subject can you talk about for hours without stopping? Sometimes your profession or direction in life is hidden in the things you would do even without being paid.

2. In what areas do people turn to you for help? In what field do your friends and family already see you as an expert? Sometimes our natural talent is already obvious to others, even when we don’t notice it ourselves. 

3. Ask people close to you what they find unique about you. Ask them to describe your singular strengths and the contribution you make to the world. Often, others see us more clearly than we see ourselves. 

4. What makes you angry or sparks a desire for change? Which challenges and problems awaken in you a strong desire to make a difference? It is worth exploring, because working on these very issues may bring you special fulfillment. 

5. How would you like to be remembered? What would you want people to write about you after 120 years, regarding your family, your devotion to Torah, your values and accomplishments? How you aspire to influence the world and the people around you may be an important clue to your own special mission in the world.  

From the apple in the Holocaust to space

Holocaust survivor Dr. Avraham Peter passed away this week, two months before his 100th birthday. Most of us never heard of him during his lifetime, and many may not have heard of him even after his passing. That’s a shame. Here is a small attempt to correct that.

As a senior engineer, Dr. Peter helped establish the Israeli Air Force in the early years of the state. He then went on to an international scientific career in the field of astrophysics. Here is just one remarkable achievement: for years he worked at NASA. 

During the Apollo 13 crisis, he was called into the American space agency’s situation room. The spacecraft had launched toward the moon, but an explosion in an oxygen tank threatened the lives of the astronauts. Operating with complete composure, Peter improvised complex and creative engineering solutions, and ultimately the astronauts returned safely to Earth.

When the media asked him about those moments, he always returned to one small story, which he told countless times throughout his life. In all his lectures and articles, he said those moments shaped him and gave him strength:

Peter was born in Poland. His family was sent to the Lodz Ghetto, to years of harsh hunger, illness, and forced labor. One day, young Avraham was sent to work beyond the ghetto walls, and at enormous risk managed to obtain an apple. Had he been caught, the punishment would have of course been immediate death. He hid the apple, managed to get it past the strict guards, and brought it to his father inside the camp.

His father had not seen fresh fruit in years. He was sick and weak. When his son handed him the apple, tears streamed from his eyes. 

But here comes the life-changing moment: instead of rushing to eat the apple out of an almost inhuman hunger, young Avraham was moved to see his father holding the apple in his hand, lifting it upward and reciting slowly and aloud the blessing over fruit: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the tree.” Then he added the “Shehecheyanu” blessing: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and brought us to this moment.” 

Young Avraham was stunned. His father had not lunged at the apple but had paused to give thanks, to bless, to give this moment Jewish meaning. Then he took a bite of the apple — and shared the pieces among the family.

“That made me a proud Jew,” his son said. 

“It made me understand that it is not our instincts that lead us. I saw my father rise above everything, and that was the spiritual anchor that accompanied me all my life. Father died in the ghetto, like most of the family. But I survived, and the memory of him reciting the blessing over the apple gave me the resilience to succeed. I understood that even under extreme pressure, even in scarcity, even in the ghetto and even in NASA’s situation room — you can be in control, you can function. We are much more than a body; we are a soul. 

My father thanked God for an apple, and I was privileged to explore the wonders of creation in depth, to dive into the world of science, and to see the Creator there too — just as in the apple.”

For more than eighty years, that apple gave strength to Dr. Peter. Last week he was laid to rest in Jerusalem.

Parashat Shelach in the US/ Parashat Korach in Israel

This week, parashat Shelach is read in the Diaspora. A verse from this parashah reveals a great secret.

Ten of the twelve spies sent to the Land of Israel return to the people in the desert filled with despair. According to them, there is no point in continuing the journey to the Land of Israel. As they describe their encounter with the inhabitants of the land, they say: “We were in our own eyes like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.”

In other words: We saw ourselves as grasshoppers, and therefore that is how we appeared to the people living there as well. We thought we were small and weak, with no chance of success, and that is how the people we met in the Land perceived us too.

Our self-perception is the foundation. It radiates outward. If we see ourselves as people of worth and meaning, if we go out into the world with optimism, vision, and faith, that is how others will look back at us as well.

This is true with our children. It is true in the workplace, in society, and also on the national level, as a people and as a state.

Parashat Korach, which is read in Israel this week, teaches us a crucial lesson about appreciating who we are. Korach rebels against the leadership of Moshe and Aharon, and seeks to replace them. What happened to him? And what sometimes happens to us as well?

Rabbi Elimelech Biderman explains that this is a mistake that remains common to this day. After all, Korach already had an honorable role. He was one of those responsible for the holy work in the Mishkan. But instead of focusing on his important position, he envied others and wanted to replace them. Korach thought that striving higher meant replacing the person at the top. But the Torah portion reveals to us that being number one means excelling and investing yourself in the place that is right for you. You are important precisely when you are fulfilling your own unique mission, carrying out the task of your life.

Translated by Yehoshua Siskin and Janine Muller Sherr

Want to read more by Sivan Rahav Meir? Google The Daily Thought or visit sivanrahavmeir.com

Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Holon 107-93 to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five semifinal series as Tamir Blatt and Iffe Lundberg hit their shots from deep while Roman Sorkin and Jaylen Hoard ruled on the inside as the yellow-and-blue chalked up the win.

However, the real story behind the game was it being played behind closed doors, with no fans in stands due to the Iranian missile attacks over the previous 24 hours. Some of the foreign players contemplated leaving the country and advocated for the game to the moved, but ultimately the decision was made to play before empty stands.

Usually before a Maccabi Tel Aviv game at Yad Eliyahu, there are dozens of fans who wait at the players entrance to try and catch a glimpse of their heroes or maybe even take a selfie, but on this night there were no more than only a few. This was due to the Home Front Command restrictions of not having any spectators in attendance for the start of the yellow-and-blue’s semifinal series against Hapoel Holon.

Playing for empty stands 

As the players stepped onto the floor for the pregame warmup, every single sneaker squeak, every single cough and every single word could be heard on the court with no one in the stands, as the over 10,000 fans that had been expected were forced to watch the game from their homes (or bars) on this night. Instead, the players on the bench were the ones who cheered their teammates on and made noise in order to get the best out of one another on this eerie night.

Adama Sanogo and Netanel Artzi got busy early for Holon, while Sorkin and Lundberg responded for Maccabi. Tamir Blatt and John DiBartolomeo both went from deep as did Lundberg to give the hosts a 30-23 lead after 10 minutes.

Blatt and DiBartolmeo continued to fill the basket as the second quarter got underway while at the other end Darin Green Jr., J’Von McCormick and Arzti tried to keep the Purples close. A red-hot Blatt along with Zach Hankins and Jaylen Hoard added points but Green drilled home a trio of triples to keep Predrag Runic’s team hanging around but down 60-53 at halftime to Oded Katash’s squad.

Kevion Taylor drained a pair from deep to begin the third quarter, Lundberg answered right back and Sorkin also scored from downtown. Hoard and Hankins both found the hoop, Sanogo did the same including a massive dunk as DiBartolomeo and McCormick traded baskets to keep the visitors still within striking range (79-72) after 30 minutes of action.

You could hear the coaches cheering, screaming and encouraging on the sidelines loud and clear as every clang off of the rim or swish through the basket could be heard with authority. The referees checking the monitors and the off-court officials could be heard discussing a challenge or play. No matter, the players on both sides continued to pound away at either end of the court.

Taylor opened up the final frame with a deuce, before Lundberg and Will Rayman both dialed up from long distance. While McCormick came back with points, Blatt went from way downtown and Holon simply couldn’t keep up with Tel Aviv, which hit the 100-point mark and closed out the Game 1 win.

Sorkin and Lundberg each scored 21 points while Blatt added 20 points in the victory while Green scored 21 points as both Sanogo and Taylor each scored 19 points for Holon in the defeat.

After the game, Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash spoke about the victory and the situation surrounding the game.

“I think we didn’t come into the game well due to what went on and I wasn’t sure as to what to expect. We tried to convince some players to play right until the last minute. We played for home-court advantage all season and we didn’t have the fans in this game. It was tough to manage the rotation but as a coach I am so proud of the players.”

Lundberg discussed the situation and addressed his frustration with the Winner League administration.

“It felt okay and it’s nice to win; it was a hard day for everyone but overall I am happy that we won. This is a message to the Winner League Administration – I really think that today was handled very, very poorly. I think it was very unprofessional and disrespectful to every player who played to be honest. I understand that they’re an entity and their interest is branding the product of Israeli basketball. But at the end of the day, we’re human beings and I understand that we have to remain professional and we have to go out there and do our job which we did today, but that doesn’t neglect the fact that the last 24 hours have been really tough on everyone. They need to do better.”

See more Israeli sports coverage at www.sportsrabbi.com/en

Former soccer player Haim Sirotkin was sentenced on Tuesday to one year in prison after being convicted of reckless and negligent conduct involving a vehicle that injured five protesters during an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court also suspended his driver’s license for four years and ordered him to pay NIS 20,000 in compensation to one victim and NIS 4,000 each to four additional victims.

The incident occurred on the evening of April 6, 2024. Sirotkin was driving with his wife and another couple on their way to a party when they reached the Namir Road-Begin Road-Shaul Hamelech Boulevard intersection in Tel Aviv, where protesters were crossing the road.

Sirotkin stopped his vehicle, and he and his wife exchanged words with demonstrators who passed near the car. According to the court, after a police officer who had offered to help guide him through the intersection stepped away, Sirotkin accelerated into the intersection and struck five protesters.

One victim, a woman in her 60s, suffered a head injury and four broken ribs. The court noted that Sirotkin continued driving for more than 10 seconds before bringing the vehicle to a stop.

Sirotkin was convicted of reckless, negligent conduct involving vehicle

The court convicted him of reckless and negligent conduct involving a vehicle, finding that while he did not intend to hit the protesters, he knowingly accelerated while numerous people were crossing in front of his car and disregarded the risk that he could strike them.

In its sentencing decision, the court said three aggravating factors justified a prison sentence.

First, the judges said the case involved more than ordinary negligence because Sirotkin consciously pressed the accelerator despite the presence of pedestrians directly ahead of him. The police officer who had been assisting him was no longer directing traffic and was instead speaking with Sirotkin’s wife, who was arguing with protesters.

Second, the court cited the number of victims and the seriousness of the injuries suffered by one of them.

Third, the court pointed to a connection between Sirotkin’s impatience and the earlier confrontation between the vehicle’s occupants and protesters. According to the ruling, his decision not to wait for demonstrators to finish crossing reflected a lack of tolerance that contributed to the dangerous situation.

The court further stated that the incident affected not only the victims but also others who witnessed it, creating concerns about the ability to express political views freely during public demonstrations.

In concluding the sentencing, the judge expressed hope that the case would serve as a public lesson in patience and tolerance. The ruling stated that Sirotkin should have remained in his vehicle and waited for the road to clear rather than driving forward while protesters were still crossing.

The judge emphasized that the prosecution never argued that Sirotkin intentionally drove into the demonstrators. Instead, prosecutors maintained that he acted recklessly, showing indifference to the consequences of his actions. They attributed to him a mental state more serious than negligence but short of intent.

Sirotkin deliberately hit gas when protesters were on road

The defense, meanwhile, did not maintain at trial Sirotkin’s original claim that a mechanical malfunction had prevented him from controlling the vehicle. As a result, the court concluded that the manner in which the car was driven stemmed directly from Sirotkin’s operation of it.

The judges said the evidence did not allow them to determine with certainty why Sirotkin drove as he did. The ruling noted that several factors may have played a role, including frustration over the delay, anger at remarks made by a protester, negative feelings toward the demonstrators, pressure created by his wife’s shouting, disregard for the possibility of injuring people, and alcohol consumption.

However, the court stressed that the issue of alcohol was not sufficiently investigated to support firm conclusions and was not included in the indictment. The ruling added that some of Sirotkin’s actions may also have resulted from an unintentional failure to operate the vehicle properly amid the combination of factors present at the scene.

Israel Police arrested seven individuals suspected of running a human trafficking ring, exploiting young women, and blackmail, police announced on Monday.

The Coastal District Police began a covert investigation into the ring months ago after suspicions regarding the suspects arose.

The investigation uncovered that the suspects exploited a network of young women, some of whom were disabled or struggling with financial issues and mental health.

According to Israel Police, the suspects lured the women in with false promises of office jobs and provided them housing, before advertising them on social media and forcing them to provide sexual services.

All of the suspects, including a man and a woman, who are the two main suspects, were arrested during raids on their homes on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of shekels in suspected blackmail money were found in the homes and seized by police during the raids. 

Victims held without means of contacting outside world

According to a Walla report, victims were held in a situation where they “had no ability to do anything,” with their passports and means of contacting the outside world withheld.

Judge Boris Sherman, who reviewed the investigation, told Walla that the ongoing investigation into the ring is complex and extensive, including dozens of substantial investigative actions. 

He determined that there was a clear reason for the arrests as the suspects posed a danger to the peace and security of the victims and the public. He also ordered the investigation team at the Coastal Police Department to advance the investigation with particular priority.

Despite extensive IDF soldiers throughout southern Lebanon, a terrorist on Tuesday managed to penetrate the border fence with Lebanon before IDF troops killed him.

The terrorist fired at soldiers from an observation tower in Israeli territory, but was shot by IDF troops and killed immediately. 

IDF sources emphasized to The Jerusalem Post that the terrorist did fire on IDF troops from within Israeli territory, but only having just crossed through the border fence, and not any further in.

According to a military investigation of the incident, he was in uniform and armed with a long knife and a handgun. 

The IDF said that to date, the terrorist’s affiliation could not be identified. The incident occured only about a kilometer from Margaliyot. 

Regardless, the penetration itself into Israeli territory at a time when the IDF nominally has said it has full control of southern Lebanon was a major embarrassment for the military and a public relations win for the Lebanese terror group.

It could also undermine the sense of safety among northern residents, some of whom, in Margaliot, Manara, and Misgav Am, were told to remain in their homes until the situation was resolved at around 6 p.m.

Upon receiving the report, the 91st Division commander, Brig. Gen. Yuval Gaz, and the 769th Regional Brigade commander, Col. Yuval Mazuz, arrived on-site with additional forces to conduct a preliminary investigation and confirm that the incident was isolated.

“We do not rule out the possibility that this was a terrorist who stayed underground or barricaded in a building for a very long time and decided to come out,” one military source said.

IDF struck in southern Lebanon before Hezbollah terrorists infiltrated Israeli territory

Earlier Tuesday, the IDF carried out multiple strikes in the city of Tyre, following statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, as well as yesterday’s clashes with Iran.

The IDF spokesperson issued a warning to residents of Tire, including those in the Christian neighborhood: “For your safety, we call on you to immediately evacuate your homes in the area shown on the map and move to the north of the al-Zahrani River. Being close to Hezbollah operatives, their facilities, or their weapons endangers your lives.”

According to the spokesperson, because of Hezbollah activity originating from the Christian neighborhood, the IDF may be forced to act against terrorist operations there in the near future.

A New Jersey man who desired to carry out a terrorist attack against a synagogue or a National Guard site was charged on Monday for attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS, according to the US Department of Justice and a criminal complaint.

Wayne resident Mohamed Sagha was allegedly a party to an online chat group for ISIS supporters. He has, since December, been participating in conversations in which ISIS supporters discussed potential attacks on US houses of worship and other sites.

The 22-year-old suspect met with a confidential source, reportedly sharing with him the intent to aid one of the other supporters in a plot to attack a religious site. Sagha was allegedly contemplating his own attack, sharing photographs and videos of National Guard and Jewish sites near his residence.

“As alleged, the defendant sought to support ISIS and expressed interest in violence directed at targets within the United States, including places of worship,” New Jersey District US Attorney Robert Frazer said in a statement. “Those who seek to advance the objectives of foreign terrorist organizations should expect a swift and coordinated response from federal law enforcement.”

Sagha attempted to join ISIS in Syria

In March, Sagha had allegedly attempted to join ISIS by traveling to Syria through Canada, but failed to complete the journey and returned home.

“The defendant allegedly wanted to attack targets in the United States in support of ISIS and its hateful ideology, but the FBI detected and put a stop to his violent plans,” FBI Counterterrorism Division Assistant Director Donald Holstead said in a statement.

“This should be a stark reminder to the American people of the FBI’s resolve to pursue anyone who tries to harm Americans and provide material support to terrorist organizations, and we will work with our Justice Department partners to make sure they face justice.”

Hostile states and groups affiliated with organized crime and terrorism received GBP 28 billion of public funds through government loans and aid payments, according to an investigation from The Telegraph.

The report revealed a hidden government dossier showing that billions of pounds went to organized crime between 2015 and 2021.

The data disclosed vast misappropriation of public funds through foreign aid and COVID relief loans, with millions going to Russia and the Islamic State. Notably, more than GBP 28 billion went to hostile entities in Britain between 2015 to 2021, the report found.

The dossier was commissioned by the UK Cabinet Office but was buried by the previous British government to avoid political embarrassment, according to a report by The Telegraph.

The Telegraph confirmed the document’s existence, which it claimed was the first analysis showing how public funds were diverted to national security threats.

The list included grants given to companies linked to Russia, COVID loans sent to ISIS terrorists, and investment in research for companies linked to the Chinese military.

British public funds reach ISIS, China, Russia

Dr. Rebecca Harding, the CEO of the Center for Economic Security, told The Telegraph that the dossier should be a wake-up call.

“Economic warfare and economic security are more important than ever before – there have been threats from adversaries, state actors, and non-state actors that go through the business system.

“One of the problems is that we have assumed that everybody wants the same thing as us. What we haven’t realized is, when it comes to other countries… [some] want to project their economic power in a way that undermines our economic power,” she said. “It is economic warfare, and we have been naive about all of this.”

Another reported instance involved COVID relief grants being given to ISIS in Syria, and UK counter terrorism funds inadvertently ending up in the hands of anti-Western extremists.

Much of the other funds went to criminal gangs and human traffickers who were claiming housing benefits and disability allowances.

Sources noted they believed there was significant overlap between the gangs and countries hostile to Britain. They added that one organized crime network linked to Eastern Europe made a significant effort to get British public funds.

The aformentioned was reportedly trying to encourage illegal immigration to Britain, and was backed by a hostile country.  Sources did not tell the Telegraph which country, however, citing sensitive intelligence. 

Some of the money also went to financing terror and domestic threats within the UK.

The report was commissioned by the UK government officials in 2023 and is intended to be shared with other dignitaries. It was ordered after it was found that government relief packages during COVID were riddled with fraud.

‘ATM for terrorists’: Officials warn UK public funds not supervised carefully enough

The Cabinet Office’s findings allegedly revealed widespread issues in the system’s grant process, leading officials to withhold the report.

Tom Keatinge, the founding Director of the Center for Finance and Security (CFS) at RUSI, told The Telegraph in an interview that: “We have a history in the UK, more so probably than anywhere else in Europe, of government and industry respecting each other’s boundaries.” 

He added that given the contemporary threat facing the UK, there was “a need to be more cautious about who is involved in projects that the government is funding, clearly. This is repeated and very public advice provided by the security service.”

Keatinge, who researches the financial dimension of security threats, told The Telegraph there were “lots of examples” of the UK’s benefits and grants becoming an “ATM for terrorists,” although he did add that government agencies responsible for distributing public funds had become more alert to the risk.

Professor Nicholas Ryder, a former adviser to the Home Affairs Select Committee and an expert on terrorism financing at Cardiff University, said the findings were “staggering” and that “the link between fraud and terrorist financing is very clear.”

“The major problem with the UK stance is that the government fails to recognize that particular connection between fraud and terrorist financing,” Ryder told The Telegraph.

“It is a threat to national security… the threat is acknowledged, but sadly, at a policy level from successive governments, that link appears not to be joined up.” 

In response to the report, a cabinet office spokesperson said that the government was taking new steps to tackle fraud.

“This government is taking unprecedented action to tackle public sector fraud, having saved over £7.5bn of taxpayer money in the past year through aggressive fraud prevention and recovery,” a spokesperson told the Telegraph. 

“By using better data and hiring more expert investigators, we are now finding and stopping this fraud faster than ever before.”

For over a decade, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf made a compelling argument to the world – and the world listened. 

The message was simple: move here, invest, and stay. Be a part of the community that’s redefining what’s possible not just in the Middle East but the world.

Dubai became a genuine destination, not just for vacationers passing through duty-free but for professionals making real decisions about where to plan their lives. Western executives made Dubai their home, and capital followed them.

Saudi Arabia embarked on its own lofty ambitions with Vision 2030. Its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman set his sights high. At the Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh in 2018, he famously declared that “the new Europe will be in the Middle East.” It was beginning to look like he might actually pull it off.

Then came the 2026 conflict, culminating in disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. And with it, a reminder of how quickly it can all unravel.

War – or even the prospect of it – doesn’t just destroy things. It stops things from starting. The professional weighing a Dubai posting decides to wait. The fund moving toward a regional allocation pulls back. The company scouting office space in Riyadh puts the project on hold and then forgets about it.

None of this shows up cleanly in any dataset. But it accumulates. The case for the region was always built on a specific premise: stability here was structural, not situational. That argument got harder to make.

Rebuilding confidence after a shock like this is not a communications problem. You can’t message your way back to where you were. What’s required is the removal of the thing that broke the confidence in the first place – not its management, not its containment, but its resolution.

And that conversation, followed wherever it honestly leads, ends up in the same place every time: Iran.

There is a version of this discussion that treats Iran purely as a security problem, a source of regional instability to be deterred, negotiated with, or, in some formulations, confronted.

That framing is not wrong, exactly, but it is badly incomplete. This is because Iran is also – and this tends to get lost – one of the most economically underperforming countries on earth relative to what it actually has.

We’re talking about a country with a population of 90+ million, vast energy resources, a strategic geography, highly educated people, and a diaspora scattered from Silicon Valley to London to Toronto to Houston. None of it is running anywhere near what it should be. The gap between Iran’s endowments and its output is, by any reasonable measure, extraordinary.

The explanation isn’t complicated: isolation and sanctions. A political system that made both inevitable and then made them worse. Remove those things – actually remove them, not temporarily suspend them – and the trajectory shifts fast.

This is not optimism talking. History showed this. South Korea in the 1960s. China after Deng. India after 1991. Countries with educated populations and productive capacity do not recover incrementally after long periods of restriction. They accelerate. Capital returns. Talent reconnects. 

Iran fits that pattern as well as any country you could name. The ingredients have been sitting there. What’s been missing is the political context that would let them work.

Economic logic alone doesn’t drive transitions. What a transition needs is a focal point, a person or institution that can credibly signal that the change is real and lasting.

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is the only figure in Iranian political life today who can plausibly play that role.

His standing rests on a few distinct pillars. Recognition, first – he is simply the most widely known Iranian opposition figure in the world, with genuine familiarity across the diaspora and real visibility inside Iran, where his calls to action have produced responses not easily dismissed.

Then there is how he has defined his own position: not as a ruler waiting to reclaim a throne, but as someone who could hold the center of a fractured opposition long enough for Iranians themselves to determine what comes next. That framing matters. Transitions succeed or fail largely on whether participants believe the key actors are invested in the outcome rather than in themselves.

The third dimension

But there is a third dimension here rooted in Iran’s own experience.

In 1971, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi organized the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian monarchy at Persepolis. The event drew heads of state from across the world, generated enormous international press coverage, and served as more than a ceremony. What it actually was, in economic terms, was a signal that Iran was serious, that it saw itself as a country with a future worth engaging, and that the door was open.

Attention came. Capital and tourism followed. Momentum became self-sustaining. Brand is not a soft concept. The way a country presents itself to the world – and who is doing the presenting – shapes decisions that aggregate into real economic outcomes. Iran knew this once.

Today the form would be different, but the function would be identical. A credible transition, anchored by a figure who carries the kind of recognition and legitimacy Pahlavi does, would land not merely as a political development but as a repricing event. 

Sanctions relief reconnects Iran to global finance almost immediately. Energy exports scale. Infrastructure draws capital. The basic plumbing of economic participation comes back online. Growth in the first decade would be transformative.

A stable, open Iran – one where human capital, energy wealth, and geographic position are finally allowed to compound – could become one of the world’s significant economies within a generation. A GDP in the range of two to three trillion dollars is not a stretch; it is simply what happens when you stop artificially suppressing a country with Iran’s endowments. 

At that scale, Iran would be the largest economy in the Middle East by a considerable margin, a major energy corridor, a manufacturing and engineering hub, and a critical connector between Asian and European markets.

A rising Iranian economy changes the math for the entire neighborhood. The Arab states that have spent years and real money building the infrastructure of a diversified, trade-oriented future would find, on their doorstep, a market and a partner rather than a source of instability, cementing the gains of the last two decades.

Saudi Arabia and its neighbors built something real. The ambition was genuine, the investment was real, and the results – before the shock – were visible. But the ceiling on what the region can ultimately become is not set by what happens in Dubai or Riyadh. It is set, in significant part, by what happens in Tehran.

Containment is not an answer to that. It is a way of not answering it while the costs accumulate.

The path to a Middle East that can finally realize what it has always promised – as an investment destination, as a trade hub, as a place people genuinely want to build their lives – runs through a resolution of the Iran question, not around it. 

And the most credible path to that resolution, the one grounded in both historical logic and present political reality, runs through Reza Pahlavi. 

The Arab states of the Persian Gulf built something real. Iran could make it permanent.

Amir Reza Oveissi is an international banker and investor with more than 25 years of experience advising companies, financial institutions, and investors across global markets. Follow him on X @AmirRezaOveissi.

Saeed Ghasseminejad is director of the Iran Prosperity Project and a senior fellow at the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI).

Shas chairman Arye Deri’s decision to push forward legislation known as Basic Law: Torah Study is the quintessential example of being tone-deaf.

At a time when soldiers are being killed in southern Lebanon by explosive drones, when troops continue risking life and limb in Gaza, when reservists are serving their fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds of duty, and when thousands of families live with the constant anxiety of a simple knock on the front door, Deri chose this moment to advance a Basic Law designed to anchor the status of yeshiva students in Israeli law.

The original version of the bill included a provision critics said equated long-term Torah study with military service and placed the two on the same plane vis-à-vis rights and benefits from the state. That provision was revised following discussions on Tuesday morning in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which determines the coalition’s position on proposed bills.

The brazenness was breathtaking.

In December 2024, columnist Kalman Liebskind wrote that Israeli society was divided, but not in the way traditionally assumed: Right and Left, religious and secular, supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rather, it was between those who go to sleep every night worried about sons, husbands, brothers, and fathers serving on the front lines and those who do not live with that fear. Only someone insulated from that fear could imagine this legislation would be received as anything other than a slap in the face.

More than that, equating a day spent in a study hall with the ability to return home safely each night with sleeping in a commandeered house in southern Lebanon – afraid to step outside in daylight because of drones overhead, unable to shower or use basic facilities, and separated from one’s family for months at a time – risks undermining the morale of those making those sacrifices.

Deri’s tone-deaf response to Israel’s multifront wars

These are people giving up comfort, safety, and family life and risking their lives to defend the collective.

Making matters worse, Deri announced his intention to advance the bill while visiting on Sunday, haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft evaders who had been arrested and jailed for ignoring draft orders.

The setting was almost as significant as the legislation itself.

As Israel continues fighting on multiple fronts, Deri chose to stand alongside draft evaders and announce a legislative initiative designed to strengthen the legal standing of those who do not serve.

The problem is not merely the substance of the bill. It is what the bill reflects: a striking lack of humility and appreciation.

One can believe that Torah study contributes profoundly to the Jewish people and to the State of Israel. Many Israelis do.

But even those who see Torah study as essential should be capable of acknowledging the unique burden borne by those who leave their families, careers, studies, and personal freedom behind to defend the country, and that all-day yeshiva study is not a comparable type of sacrifice.

Even Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party concluded that the bill, in its original form, went too far.

Smotrich, because of a desire to keep this government intact, has been fuzzy on the whole haredi conscription issue, something that has alienated many in the religious-Zionist community, which is disproportionately represented in the IDF’s combat units and among the more than 950 soldiers who have fallen since the October 7 massacre and which understands the value of Torah learning.

Yet even for the Religious Zionist Party, the idea of equating the status and conditions of those who do not serve with those who do proved unacceptable. The party said it would only support a version of the bill recognizing Torah study as a foundational value of the state that removes language comparing yeshiva students to soldiers and reservists.

Faced with that opposition, cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs said the Ministerial Committee for Legislation had decided that the controversial equivalence clause would eventually be removed. Shas MK Yoav Ben-Tzur similarly said the wording would be altered so that no comparison would be made between yeshiva students and soldiers.

While an improvement, this does not alter the legislation’s broader significance, which is expected to come before the Knesset Plenum on Wednesday for a preliminary reading.

Why is Deri pushing for the Torah study bill to be a Basic Law?

The removal of the comparison clause does not end the controversy, because the legislation’s real significance lies not in the specific wording equating Torah study with military service. The real significance is that it is being advanced as a Basic Law.

This matters enormously, because in Israel’s legal system, Basic Laws have a quasi-constitutional status. They are not ordinary legislation. They form the foundation upon which other laws are interpreted and judged.

By enshrining Torah study as a constitutional value, the coalition would fundamentally alter the legal framework governing future debates over haredi conscription.

Without the original equivalence clause, the law can no longer claim that a yeshiva student is doing the same thing as a soldier. But it would still instruct the courts that Torah study is a supreme national value deserving constitutional protection.

That changes the legal balance. Future courts reviewing draft-exemption legislation would no longer be weighing equality alone and whether granting exemptions is discriminatory against those who do not receive them. The court would instead be required to balance equality against an explicitly protected constitutional value: the state’s recognition of Torah study as a foundational national interest.

In practical terms, the legislation would make it far more difficult for the judiciary to invalidate future arrangements granting deferments or exemptions to yeshiva students.

The coalition understands this. Which is precisely why Shas and United Torah Judaism are advocating the bill.

The goal is not merely symbolic recognition of Torah study. The goal is to create a constitutional anchor that would make future judicial intervention regarding draft exemptions far more difficult.

On the very same day that this law was discussed, another bill restoring daycare subsidies to families whose husbands are not serving in the military, though legally obligated to do so, passed through committee and was readied for a first reading.

The two bills tell a larger story: One seeks to restore benefits lost after the High Court of Justice ruled there was no longer a legal basis for blanket draft exemptions; the other seeks to create a constitutional framework that would make future judicial intervention far more difficult.

Taken together, they represent an effort not merely to preserve the existing arrangement but to entrench it.

To do all this precisely now shows a breathless degree of disconnection from the mood of the nation, or at least from the country’s non-haredi Jewish majority.

Likud MK Tally Gotliv created a severe security risk by exposing the personal details of a Shin Bet agent (Israel Security Agency) during wartime, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara told the Knesset House Committee on Tuesday during a heated debate over whether to grant Gotliv immunity for the charges.

The A-G presented the agency’s stance in a debate that took place after Gotliv was indicted for disclosing and publishing classified confidential information in violation of the Shin Bet law.

Gotliv spoke for over five hours on the second day of discussions, following a previous day that focused on her claims from the morning into the afternoon. A final vote on whether to issue immunity for Gotliv was postponed to next week on Monday.

The indictment against Gotliv was filed by Baharav-Miara in May for publishing the identity of the partner of protest leader Shikma Bressler, who, according to the indictment, was a Shin Bet employee.

Gotliv requests that the Knesset grant her immunity

Under the Knesset Members’ Immunity Law, Gotliv was able to request that the Knesset grant her immunity from criminal prosecution before the case proceeded to court.

Baharav-Miara presented the committee members with a top-secret document containing a professional opinion issued by the Shin Bet.

MKs who were exposed to the ultra-classified Shin Bet opinion said it stated that Gotliv endangered the life of an agent, as well as his children and family, according to a Channel 13 report.

The main part of the classified opinion detailed real examples of Shin Bet employees whose names were exposed, putting their lives at real and immediate risk, the report added.

Goltiv’s argument to the panel centered around the claim that sharing the identity was warranted.

She told the panel that she did the act knowingly, arguing that it was justified and that she should receive immunity as an MK. She also focused for hours on renewing claims that treason had taken place during the October 7 attacks and presented various theories on the matter.

Her remarks also involved a lengthy personal attack against Baharav-Miara, who had filed the indictment and attended both discussions on the matter.

Goltiv’s argument attacked the Attorney-General

“You’re chasing after us. You are persecuting us – the right-wing government,” Gotliv said directly to Baharav-Miara.

Slamming her further, Gotliv accused the A-G of “behaving like a criminal organization.

“And what you are doing to me will be done to other MKs, unless they are puppets,” Gotliv said.

“מתנהגים כמו ארגון פשע” – ח”כ גוטליב פנתה ליועמ”שית בהרב מיארה: “חרבתם את הייעוץ המשפטי לממשלה במטרה ברורה לחדל את ממשלת הימין ולהלבין את צמרת השב”כ”

🏛️מתוך הדיון בוועדת הכנסת בנושא קביעת חסינות בפני דין פלילי לח”כ טלי גוטליב@TallyGotliv https://t.co/o223xjCYWa pic.twitter.com/OKMGDKwKMN

— ערוץ כנסת 99 (@KnessetT) June 9, 2026

“I stand by my clear immunity. The indictment was filed against me in bad faith. But I have substantive immunity,” Gotliv told the panel.

After Gotliv’s lengthy remarks, Baharav-Miara was allotted time to present her stance, in which she said that “according to the Shin Bet, a risk was created as a result of the exposure of the details of a Shin Bet agent during wartime.”

She also noted that granting immunity to Gotliv would undermine the protection of Shin Bet employees.

“Accepting MK Gotliv’s request would harm the principle of equality before the law,” and she called on the committee to reject Gotliv’s immunity request.

Baharav-Miara noted that Gotliv’s actions were not a single publication or a spontaneous statement made in a momentary deviation.

“The MK repeatedly published it deliberately, justified it, and repeated it. This is not a one-time event but repeated conduct. The MK had other means available to her, for example, initiating a discussion in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,” she said.

היועצת המשפטית לממשלה גלי בהרב-מיארה ביקשה להציג לחברי הוועדה מסמך סודי ביותר של חוות דעת מקצועית מטעם השב”כ – סגן השר אלמוג כהן התפרץ לדבריה ועורר מהומה@almog_cohen08
🏛️מתוך הדיון בוועדת הכנסת בנושא קביעת חסינות בפני דין פלילי לח”כ טלי גוטליב https://t.co/o223xjCYWa pic.twitter.com/xyApCX1RcK

— ערוץ כנסת 99 (@KnessetT) June 9, 2026

Gotliv repeatedly clashed with her and opposition lawmakers during the discussion.

Opposition coordinator Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari told the panel that “in all the hours Gotliv spoke, she did not once address the offense she is here for today.

“Not only did she take no responsibility, but she amplified the offense she committed. She provided no testimony or shred of evidence to support her claims,” she added.

Committee chairman Ofir Katz then halted the discussion as Ben-Ari and Gotliv clashed, and it went to recess.

Katz also criticized the attorney-general during the discussion, despite his role as committee chairperson. Opposition lawmakers repeatedly spoke against Katz’s conduct during the debate. They objected to the fact that he continuously kicked out MKs for interrupting Gotliv, while he allowed Gotliv to interrupt the A-G as she presented her stance to the panel.

היועמ”שית על חשיפת עובד השב”כ: “לרשות חבר כנסת שמעוניין לבקר גוף ביטחוני כזה או אחר יש אמצעים לגיטימיים לעשות כך”: והוסיפה כי היה בידה של ח”כ גוטליב לכנס דיון בנושא בוועדת החוץ והביטחון שבה היא חברה@TallyGotliv @Meravbenari
🏛️מתוך הדיון בוועדת הכנסת בנושא קביעת חסינות בפני דין… https://t.co/SQY06Xn6g9 pic.twitter.com/lrQTXZ2cxk

— ערוץ כנסת 99 (@KnessetT) June 9, 2026

MKs were also required to abide by special attendance requirements in the panel to be allowed to partake in the final vote on granting Gotliv immunity.

Lawmakers were not permitted to make interruptions, or they would have been removed from the panel, and the rules stipulated that only MKs who participated in all meetings on the matter would be eligible to vote. Attendance for at least half the duration of a meeting would be considered participation.

Other coalition MKs criticized the attorney-general as well during the discussion. At one point, haredi (ultra-Orthodox) MKs arrived at the panel to launch a personal attack on Baharav-Miara, saying she was persecuting haredim and the Torah.

Though Baharav-Miara had sat through hours of Gotliv’s remarks, making little interruptions, the outburst from the haredi MKs caused her to walk out of the discussion.

Gotliv and numerous other lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have repeatedly clashed with Baharav-Miara for years. The government voted to fire the A-G last year amid the rift, but the High Court struck down the decision.

The debate over Gotliv’s immunity began on Monday, despite the renewed conflict with Iran, which began the evening before and continued throughout the day.

This led to sharp criticism from opposition lawmakers over focusing on the contentious matter while the country remained under threat from Iranian missiles, and as all schools were closed nationwide.

“It’s a blessed day,” Gotliv told the panel in her opening remarks, over having the ability to request immunity in the Knesset.

In Gotliv’s lengthy remarks spanning over multiple hours, she also screened a video to the panel with clips that she presented as “evidence of betrayal” during the October 7 Hamas attacks in 2023. She made accusations of treason that she claimed took place during the attacks, presenting various theories to the panel and sparking outrage from opposition MKs.

Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak said, “An insane event is currently taking place in the Knesset House Committee, in which a deranged MK is spreading wild conspiracy theories and accusing the IDF and the Shin Bet of treason.”

The charge listed in the indictment against Gotliv is revealing and publishing confidential information under the Shin Bet law.

‘I acted under the authority of my immunity’ said Gotliv

“Why are you indicting me? Because you do not know what to do with me. I acted under the authority of my immunity. I exposed [anti-judicial reform activist Shikma] Bressler’s partner,” Gotliv told the panel.

Ahead of the Knesset debate on Monday, Baharav-Miara penned a letter to members of the panel, requesting that Gotliv’s immunity be denied.

She explained that the indictment against Gotliv was filed on the basis of “professional, objective, and good-faith discretion,” and that none of the grounds for parliamentary immunity applied in her case.

The indictment against Gotliv was filed in May, based on her publishing on January 24, 2024, a screenshot from the website Edna Karnaval that included the full name of Bressler’s partner and claims tying him to alleged contacts with then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar before the October 7 massacre.

Karnaval is described by the indictment as having a “critical and blunt” style, especially toward public officials.

The screenshot, according to the indictment, included a headline alleging that Mossad chief David Barnea had received information from the US that they had intercepted calls between Bressler’s partner and Sinwar four days before October 7. The article further claimed that Barnea had summoned Bressler to a meeting, and that the Prime Minister’s Office had later issued a denial of Gotliv’s earlier statements.

The indictment said that the post received in excess of 400,000 views, 1,000 comments, 1,000 likes, and 500 shares. It said that Gotliv’s X/Twitter account had over 65,000 followers at the start of the relevant period, and over 90,000 by the time the indictment was filed.

Prosecutors alleged that Gotliv revealed and published the name of the Shin Bet employee and his relationship with Bressler “knowingly, deliberately, continuously, demonstratively, and repeatedly.”

The indictment said that the post remained available online from the time of publication until the indictment was filed, and that Gotliv did not remove it from her account.

The indictment further said that Gotliv stood by the publication, repeatedly published similar statements in which she again identified Bressler’s partner as a Shin Bet employee, and publicly stated that she had no intention of removing, or apologizing for, what she had written.

The Mossad denied the claim at the time, calling it a “recycled falsehood” and saying Barnea had “never met, spoken to, or invited Shikma Bressler to a meeting.”

Earlier in May, Defense Minister Israel Katz signed a certificate of confidentiality ahead of the indictment filing, clearing a procedural obstacle that had delayed the case.

Gotliv has repeatedly framed the matter as a political and legal fight over her work as an MK. In her post ahead of the indictment, she wrote that the attorney-general had acted after Katz signed the confidentiality certificate, and said she had not yet received the indictment, adding that she expected to read it “soon at one of [Baharav-Miara’s] mouthpieces.”

Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report. 

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved on Tuesday the legislation advanced by the haredi parties seeking to enshrine Torah Study into basic law ahead of its expected upcoming preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum. 

Leader of the haredi Shas Party, Arye Deri, has demanded that legislation be advanced, and said on Monday that its passage was a condition for party lawmakers to join coalition votes.

The contentious legislation previously contained wording that called for equality of rights between IDF soldiers who serve and haredim who evade military service.

The far-right Religious Zionist Party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said on Tuesday that it would not support a bill that calls for equality of rights between IDF soldiers who serve and haredim who evade military service.

Though the contentious wording was subsequently removed, the move to enshrine Torah Study into the country’s Basic Law would still have sweeping implications on the status of haredim who evade service in the country. 

The expected advancement of the legislation has led to sharp condemnation from lawmakers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, as well as from opposition party leaders.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett slammed the proposal, saying that the government was now advancing “an exemption law on steroids.”

‘Bill is desecration of the Torah’

He said the bill was “a desecration of the Torah and a desecration of the honor of IDF soldiers who are currently fighting in Lebanon.”

Haredi party leaders have continuously pushed for Netanyahu’s coalition to advance legislation that would not increase haredi enlistment. The IDF has repeatedly warned of an urgent manpower shortage, notably after more than two years of war.

In March, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said the IDF could soon collapse if there is no solution to the manpower shortage.

In a separate decision, the Knesset’s Finance Committee voted to approve ahead of its first reading a bill that aims to change the eligibility criteria for daycare subsidies, basing eligibility solely on a mother’s income. Critics argue that this will encourage state subsidies for parents of draft evaders even amid the IDF’s severe manpower shortage.

The advancement of both bills is reportedly part of an emerging deal between Netanyahu and the haredi parties, ahead of the upcoming Knesset dissolution vote in its second and third readings.

The agreement between Netanyahu and the parties is to push the election date to October 20, rather than hold it in September, as the haredi parties have sought. In return, they would receive advancement on the Basic Law: Torah Study, haredi daycare subsidies law, and the kashrut law, according to a Channel 12 report.

Lawmakers from Shas and UTJ told the Knesset House Committee last week that they wanted to move up the election date to September, before the High Holy Days. Numerous reports have stated that the haredi parties have pushed for this to lead to a better turnout among their voters.

Reportedly, Netanyahu has opposed the move and instead seeks to hold elections in late October, allowing the coalition more time to advance legislation during the Knesset’s final session and potentially achieve military goals.

There is growing concern in Jerusalem that US President Donald Trump might not give Israel the green light to respond to Iranian attacks, even with a limited or symbolic strike.

Israel might find itself in a situation where it has to confront Iran alone, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday at a meeting of the security cabinet.

“We may have to strike without American backing, despite all the costs involved,” he said. “We do not want to reach that point, but we know we are capable of it.”

During a phone call with Netanyahu on Sunday evening, following the Iranian ballistic-missile attack, Trump did not explicitly say, “Don’t,” regarding an Israeli response, but he conveyed that he wanted a measured reaction.

“We are close to an agreement,” Trump told Netanyahu during the phone call.

Later that evening, Israel struck several targets, including radar systems, air-defense batteries, weapons-production facilities, and a petrochemical plant.

On Monday, Israel had planned a much broader attack on Iran, involving about 50 aircraft and targeting a wide range of sites. The process of giving the strike a green light was about to begin when Trump spoke with Netanyahu and clarified that Tehran had sent a message saying it had stopped firing. He also made clear his opposition to a large-scale Israeli attack, which ultimately led to the operation being canceled.

Main concern is that Trump prioritizes diplomacy

The concern in Israel is that, given Trump’s desire for a diplomatic agreement, he might oppose even a symbolic strike the next time tensions escalate.

“At the beginning of the week, there was noticeable progress between Tehran and Washington regarding a possible agreement,” a person familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post.

Trump told reporters an agreement with Iran could be signed “within the next two to three days.”

Trump is frustrated by his inability to establish direct contact with Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and by the way the Iranian side is handling the negotiations, The New York Times reported.

Trump has repeatedly backed away from conditions that had already been agreed upon by his negotiating team, the report cited two mediators and another source familiar with the matter as saying.

At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said the military believes almost any deal with Iran would be a bad agreement.

Earlier on Sunday, US Vice President JD Vance told Fox News: “Israel may like [the agreement we will sign]. They may not like that this is in the best interest of the United States of America.”

The Palestine Free from the River to the Sea Party, running on a platform dedicated to dismantling Israel, is seeking to finalize its registration for the 2026 New Zealand elections.

Due to an error on digital forms, the party is rushing to reapply almost 600 members to conform with Electoral Commission requirements, party president Paul Hopkinson said Sunday on Facebook. The longtime far-left activist announced the creation of the party, also called the Free Palestine Party, on May 11.

The party has six principles as part of its platform, and five of them relate to Israel and the Palestinians. It calls for a right of return for Palestinians, and the “dismantling of the Zionist structure of the state of Israel” in favor of a “single state in Palestine” that is “bi-national, secular and democratic, with full and equal citizenship for all with ethnic and religious rights protected in a democratic constitution.”

Other principles call for the end of military occupation in the Levant, prosecution for supposed war crimes and “genocide,” and to hold Israel accountable for “gross abuses of Palestinian human rights.”

The party offers “unconditional and complete solidarity” for all forms of Palestinian “resistance,” a euphemism commonly used for Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

The final principle demands that New Zealand withdraw from all security alliances with the US and distance itself from the US and England.

The party said it hopes to advance its objectives in Parliament by winning seats and to develop ties with other global movements.

“The Palestine Free from the River to the Sea Party is committed to contesting parliamentary elections as an independent party and building a mass democratic movement for justice in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally,” it said on its website. “We aim to change public opinion and put sustained parliamentary pressure on the New Zealand government to uphold its obligations under international law with respect to Palestine.”

Taxpayer money spent on anti-Zionist hate 

New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses said that the issue for the Jewish community is that if the party were to successfully register, it would receive taxpayer funding to advance an agenda that essentially demands an end to Israel. 

Israel Institute of New Zealand co-director David Cumin said it was wonderful to live in a democracy like Israel and New Zealand, where anyone could run for office, but it was disappointing that “500 people support a party with the singular policy of destroying the Jewish state.”

“They will now use taxpayer money to spread their anti-Zionist hate around New Zealand,” he said. “We hope good people will see what they are and not remain silent.”

Hopkinson was an activist who advocated on behalf of the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Cumin said.

In an April speech, Hopkinson described himself as a “national spokesperson for the PFLP campaign of Aotearoa,” according to footage published on Facebook by the Otautahi Palestine Solidarity Network.

The Electoral Commission said parties are advised to submit their paperwork by June 11 to allow enough processing time before the August 6 deadline. The election is scheduled for November.
 
 
 

Last month, a billboard went up across the street from Israel’s Supreme Court. On it was a picture of a sitting justice, Noam Sohlberg, an observant, kippah-wearing Jew – beneath a demand that he take his “Reform hands” off the Chief Rabbinate. His offense: he had ruled that women may sit for the state rabbinate’s certification exams in Jewish law.

The petition had been brought by religiously observant women, steeped in Torah and Halacha. All they were asking for was to be tested in the very body of law they already live by. Nothing in that violates halacha. (Full disclosure: I was among those who brought that petition.)

The billboard was only the beginning. Days later, a group of senior rabbis from the Hardal wing of Religious Zionism – its hardline, “haredi-nationalist” edge, which fuses ultra-Orthodox stringency with religious nationalism – issued a declaration that Jews are forbidden by their religion to obey Supreme Court rulings they deem contrary to Halacha.

Hardal vs mainstream Religious Zionism

This could amount to a call for insubordination. And this week, when haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rioters – from the separate, non-Zionist ultra-Orthodox world, enraged by a different ruling on the military draft – vandalized the courtyard of Sohlberg’s home, rabbis and public figures from the Hardal camp still found it hard to condemn the attack – because Justice Sohlberg sits on the very Supreme Court they oppose.

Looking in from the outside, in Israel and in the Diaspora alike, this seems like more of the old story: religion versus the courts, Judaism versus democracy. It is a tidy narrative. It is also wrong.

Consider who Sohlberg actually is. He is a Religious Zionist: a graduate of the State-Religious school system and of Yeshivat Har Etzion, a conservative jurist from Gush Etzion, today the Deputy President of the Supreme Court and, under Israel’s seniority system, in line to become its next president.

Sohlberg is not alone. Three of the 11 justices on Israel’s highest court are Religious Zionists, roughly double their share of the population. Religious-Zionist men and women fill senior positions throughout the Justice Ministry and the courts. I teach at Bar-Ilan University’s law faculty, where many of my most outstanding students are religious – and some will become the judges of tomorrow.

What this fight reveals is that Religious Zionism is far from being of one mind. Far from it: it is in the midst of a deep-seated internal struggle. The Hardal faction works mainly within religious spaces – through the political party that usurped the very name “Religious Zionism,” the religious media, and the religious schools.

At times it can seem to be the authentic face of the movement. But the mindset of the broader Religious-Zionist community is vastly different. It works outward and is a full partner in building the country – in hi-tech and the economy, in public service, in the army, and in the courts. This is no accident. The very ethos of Religious Zionism is integration: to bridge the sacred and the worldly, and to play an integral role in building the State of Israel.

So when Hardal rabbis brand Sohlberg “Reform”, it’s not just an insult. It is an attempt to oust him from the Religious-Zionist public. But he most certainly belongs – more fully, and more admired and emulated, than they are. Those deliberately separating themselves from the building of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and attacking its institutions, are betraying the core principle of Religious Zionism: being a full partner in these efforts.

The radicals are not defending Religious Zionism against a hostile court. They are turning against its success — against the sons and daughters of Religious Zionism who long ago took their place inside the institutions of the state, including its courts.

The writer is the CEO of Kolenu, a Religious-Zionist organization working to support the values of Torah, moral leadership, and social responsibility.

US President Donald Trump’s relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is “somewhat” “calming down” the increasingly strained relationship between Jerusalem and Ankara, Dr. Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies specializing in Turkish affairs, told The Jerusalem Post earlier this week.

Lindenstrauss spoke with the Post only days after Turkey’s Interior Minister, Mustafa Ciftci, told crowds at the AK Party Corum Provincial Advisory Council meeting he had aspirations to one day govern Jerusalem, and that he hoped “those lands will be ours once again.”

“God willing, they will come under our sovereignty and dominion once more. Because we have a global leader like Recep Tayyip Erdogan at our helm. A world leader,” Ciftci said.

The Ottoman Empire controlled Israel for more than 400 years, ending when it lost to the Allied forces in World War I. In 1918, its leadership signed the Armistice of Mudros, surrendering to Britain.

Ciftci’s comments, which were widely condemned by Israeli officials, add to an “existing tensions,” Lindenstrauss explained.

“While this can one could dismiss this rhetoric as only one of one minister, it has to be seen in the context of other worrying remarks,” she asserted.

Erdogan stance on Israel since October 7 attacks

Erdogan has made numerous inflammatory comments directed at Israel since Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 attacks, dragging Gaza into the war and resulting humanitarian crisis. His condemnation of Israel is particularly notable as Turkey was once the first Muslim country to recognize the Jewish state less than a year after Israel declared independence.

Though Ciftci’s remarks alluded to an Ottoman occupation of Israeli territory, which is considered Palestinian territory for those advocating for a one-state solution, Lindenstrauss said she very much doubted that much outrage would be stirred across the Arab world. However, she cautioned that such a statement could further embroil Ankara in the battle for the country to head the Muslim world. The competition is largely taking place in the Palestinian territories and found in issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Turkey’s involvement in east Jerusalem was more dominant in previous years and actually, because of the war, is a little bit less dramatic than it used to be. It’s definitely raised eyebrows both in Saudi Arabia and in Jordan,” she said. “Turkey has been involved both with [giving] support to the Palestinian Authority and also with, what Turkey claims to be only political support but Israel sees as more widespread, support to Hamas.”

Additionally, amid rumors of Qatari plans to expel Hamas leadership during the hostage negotiations between the Iran-backed terror group and Israel, Turkey was largely named as the terrorists’ future host nation, cementing Turkey’s growing position of influence in the region.

Through “balancing” relations with both the PA and Hamas, Ankara has cemented its position as “one of the guarantors to the Palestinian cause in the international arena.”

Holding Turkey back from further entrenching its position as a main Palestinian backer is its NATO membership, she continued, especially as the country is set to host a NATO summit in July. This, combined with Erdogan’s relationship with Trump, has meant that Turkey must delicately balance its Western relationships with its more extremist ones.

Ankara using US relationship to dissolve Kurdish groups

Ankara is also now utilizing those relationships as part of its wider aim to disarm and dissolve Kurdish groups, she continued, referencing reports that Erdogan had asked Trump to abandon his plans to utilize Kurdish militias on the Iraqi border in the war against Iran.

“One of the concerns of military confrontation between the US and Israel with Iran was that indeed the Kurds of Iran would strengthen, perhaps even gain some autonomous rule, and that would also endanger the process Turkey’s leading with the with the PKK on its dissolvement and disarmament,” she explained. “This again goes hand-in-hand with the assessment of what are the Turkish fears of this violent confrontation with Iran. How realistic the plan to involve the Kurds was in the first place, one can question, but we know that definitely Erdogan tried to block it.”

Hit significantly less than other regional countries during the March war, Ankara is also interested in avoiding becoming a target for Tehran. Earlier, it had prepared to absorb Iran’s missiles and an influx of refugees, but was largely spared except economically, she explained.

“Turkey will largely try to remain uninvolved militarily. It will support the diplomatic front. It supported the Pakistan mediation efforts, Qatar mediation efforts, Omani mediation efforts,” she concluded. “So it will remain in this mediation level. It also said it might assist in the crisis surrounding the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but overall, I believe it will do its best to remain uninvolved militarily and only try to influence the diplomatic front.”

Everything has changed for Israel, with Iran, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah, and Syria.

Pre-October 7, Israel had no security zones, was afraid of getting into fights with nearly all of its enemies, especially Iran, but had a decent, if not great, diplomatic reputation.

Now, Israel has security zones everywhere, is unafraid to bludgeon its enemies if they look at it in the wrong way, including Iran, but is not using any diplomacy or any compromises to achieve its strategic goals, leading to continually dropping lows in its diplomatic strength. Given that diplomatic strength eventually impacts military strength, especially when it comes to the US, this is not a secondary issue.  

Tehran and the new Middle East

Let’s start with Iran.

Most observers forget that Israel and Iran have not fought twice in the last few years, but now rather five times.

It started in April 2024, got worse in October 2024, and then expanded much more in June 2025 and February 2026, with a smaller but not insignificant round (around 25 Iranian ballistic missiles and dozens of IDF fighter jet airstrikes) this week.

In this new Middle East, the constant rounds of big fighting is not between Israel and Hamas, but Jerusalem and Tehran.

In some ways, this new arrangement is worse for Israel, but in some ways it is much better.

It is worse because Iranian ballistic missiles are far more dangerous and scary than Hamas’s low-class rockets.

But it is much better because now when Israel fights, it can directly damage, and in that way, speak to the head of the snake.

When Israel was getting bloodied by Hamas from Gaza, round after round, year after year, Iran did not care that Hamas was losing more fighters than Israel, because the Islamic Republic was sitting pretty drinking Kool-Aid on the sidelines 1,500 kilometers away.

Now Israel has shown it is ready, willing, and able to hold Iran accountable, and that when it does, the Jewish state will come out ahead, and the Islamic regime will lose something, or many things which are valuable.

Until now, Iran has also been under the misconception that Israel might be afraid to strike its nuclear program or ballistic missile program. Now it knows that no matter what paper it signs with the Trump administration, if it crosses certain redlines, the question about Israel striking would not be if, but when.

This may be more terrifying for Israel’s citizens for short bursts of time, but Israel is militarily safer than Iran now that it has rewritten the rules.

Hamas and the Gaza strip

With Hamas, the new threat is not really rockets or being invaded, but legitimacy.

Israel’s legitimacy is the lowest it has been since the 1970s and possibly the lowest ever.

Every month that goes by without rebuilding in Gaza does not just hurt Hamas – it also hurts Israel.

Jerusalem needs to get some amount of disarmament from Hamas to move rebuilding past a certain point and to start partial reductions of its Gaza security zone (say from 50-70% to 30%, while Israel probably only needs 15%), but holding out for complete disarmament before rebuilding starts even in areas under Israeli control is harming long-term Israeli interests in the US, in Europe, and with Israel’s Arab allies. That is only among Israel’s allies. Obviously, with Israel’s enemies, it is providing them with additional public relations ammunition for aggressive disinformation campaigns.

If after October 7, 2023, Israel needed to topple Hamas’s military threat and ensure the terror group could not just rearm in the near future, it has by now done that and then some, but allowed its legitimacy to drop off a cliff – and much farther than was necessary.

While some Israeli officials may want to keep the focus only on Iran, and it was critical to set back the Islamic regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile threats, ignoring Gaza is costing Israel far more than many are admitting.

The balance of power with Hezbollah

The balance of power with Hezbollah is also radically different.

The group went from being able to threaten the whole country with apocalyptic destruction by the sheer immensity of 150,000 rockets and missiles, to basically being a Hamas in the north, which can threaten the nearby northern areas, but not much more than that.

Moreover, anytime Hezbollah might provoke Israel, the air force can now exact harsh revenge without worrying about setting off judgment day, because Hezbollah no longer wields a judgment day-level threat.

Whether Israel can get Hezbollah to at least partially disarm – say, moving its rockets much farther away from Israel and keeping long-range precision rockets down under a certain number – in exchange for a withdrawal or partial withdrawal from southern Lebanon remains an open question.

But as with Gaza, the IDF is likely to hold some kind of security zone in Lebanon for the foreseeable future, since it cannot actually fully disarm Hezbollah.

All quiet in Syria 

Israel has had quiet from Syria now for over 18 months.

Syrian ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has an al-Qaeda background and resume and may be a ‘wolf in sheep’s’ clothing, but it is unclear what Israel would lose by a partial reduction of its huge Syrian buffer zone in exchange for Syria also demilitarizing in areas near Israel.

As long as Israel keeps a partial zone, jihadists should not be able to overrun any Israeli villages as they did from Gaza on October 7. And if al-Sharaa has decided not to fight Israel because he has too many internal problems, then a deal leading to a partial withdrawal for partial Syrian demilitarization   

Israel has beaten its enemies, at least in relative terms, on every front. But it has failed to nail down any long-term diplomatic achievements, which would allow it to switch from fighting all the time to some of the time.   

No one in Israel is talking about going back to the timid pre-October 7 positions, and Israeli military achievements have made Israel safer in the short and medium term. But if Israel does not remember how to do diplomacy before it is too late, eventually, its ignoring that critical arena will lead to the world, via Trump or others, imposing less desirable conditions on the Jewish state, including on its military abilities.

A new survey by the Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI) found a sharp decline in the share of Jewish Israelis who believe US President Donald Trump views Israel’s security as a central consideration, alongside broad skepticism about a potential US-Iran agreement and continued dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of Hezbollah.

Only 41% of Jewish respondents said Israel’s security is a central consideration for Trump, down from 64% in March and the lowest figure recorded since the question was first asked in November 2024.

Among Arab respondents, however, the share expressing that view rose from 43% to 59%.

Support for the statement declined across the Jewish political spectrum. Among respondents identifying with the Left, 25.5% said Israel’s security is a central consideration for Trump, compared with 34.5% in March. In the Center, the figure fell from 62% to 32%, while among those on the Right it dropped from 70% to 48%.

The survey also examined public expectations regarding a possible agreement between the United States and Iran.

Preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons

Respondents were asked whether such an agreement would include provisions preventing the continued development of Iranian nuclear weapons, eliminating the ballistic missile threat, and weakening the regime in Tehran.

A majority (56%) said they believe an agreement would prevent further development of Iranian nuclear weapons. Far fewer believed it would address other concerns. Only 32% said they expect an agreement to eliminate Iran’s ballistic missile threat, while 28% believe it would weaken the regime.

The findings reflect a notable shift from March, when public expectations regarding Israel’s military campaign against Iran were considerably more optimistic.

At the time, about two-thirds of respondents believed the operation would eliminate Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities, while more than half thought it could lead to the fall of the regime.

The survey found that 57.5% of Israelis believe ending the conflict with Iran under the currently discussed framework would not serve Israel’s security interests.

Among Jewish respondents, fewer than one-third in any political camp said ending the war would be in Israel’s interest. The figures stood at 30% on the Left, 26.5% in the Center, and 29.5% on the Right.

Respondents also expressed dissatisfaction with Israel’s handling of Hezbollah in the North.

Only 17.5% of the public rated Israel’s performance as good or excellent. Among Jewish respondents, the figure was 19.5%, compared with 8% among Arab respondents.

Only one-quarter of right-wing Jews gave gov’t positive feedback on handling of Hezbollah

Even among right-wing Jewish respondents, only about one-quarter gave the government’s handling of Hezbollah a positive rating. Support was even lower among respondents on the Left and in the Center.

The survey also examined public attitudes toward Netanyahu’s political future.

A total of 61% of respondents said the prime minister should not run in the next Knesset election.

Among Jewish respondents, 57% opposed another Netanyahu candidacy, while 39.5% supported one. Among Arab respondents, 83% said he should not run, compared with 11% who said he should.

A more detailed breakdown among Jewish respondents showed significant divisions on the Right. About two-thirds of those identifying as center-right said Netanyahu should not run again, while 69% of respondents on the hard right supported another candidacy.

As expected, large majorities on the Left, center-left, and in the Center opposed a future Netanyahu run.

Analysis of voting patterns in the 2022 election found that most coalition-party voters support Netanyahu’s continued involvement in politics. However, roughly one-quarter of voters for Likud, the Religious Zionist Party, and United Torah Judaism said he should not run in the next election.

The Israeli Voice Index for May 2026 was prepared by Prof. Tamar Hermann, Dr. Lior Yochhanni, and Yaron Kaplan. The survey was conducted by the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israeli Democracy Institute between May 31 and June 5. It included 603 Hebrew-speaking respondents and 150 Arabic-speaking respondents, representing the Israeli population aged 18 and older.

During a visit to Northern Command, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said that the IDF’s recent airstrike in Iran was a precursor to a “much more significant and heavy” operation in comments to the press on Tuesday.

He emphasized that the IDF is prepared to strike Iran again if it attacks Israel, while continuing to dismantle terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon, including a base in the Buphor area.

Speaking at a command training exercise in northern Israel, he underscored the IDF’s readiness for ongoing operations.

“The IDF maintained and continues to maintain alertness and immediate readiness to return to fighting in Iran,” he said.

“All our defense and attack arrays were alert and ready. We intercepted the threats fired at us and struck Iran quickly and powerfully. We are ready to strike Iran again with another hard and deep blow. Iran’s attempt to set equations and change reality will fail.”

IDF chief Zamir says military will still strike Hezbollah after ceasefire announced, broken

Addressing the northern front, Zamir said the military will continue operations to target Hezbollah and protect communities near the border.

“IDF forces continue to fight and attack along the front defense line in southern Lebanon, destroying terror infrastructure, including significant underground facilities in the Buphor area, which Hezbollah used as a fire base and command center for combat management.”

Concluding his remarks, the chief of staff highlighted the importance of leadership in warfare.

“During a prolonged multi-theater war, command courses serve as a central anchor in strengthening the IDF’s foundations and allow us to maintain the IDF as a professional army with norms, values, and high standards.

“You have experienced unprecedented combat in IDF history and represent the IDF’s significant command echelon. The leadership and professionalism you demonstrate will determine the IDF’s ability to carry out its complex missions with excellence.”

“Ahead of you lies the most important task: to lead soldiers, defeat our enemies in battle, while adhering to operational norms and IDF values.”