'There could have been a deal with no terrorists released'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/402493

Caroline Glick writes how the USA could have pushed mediating countries for a deal with no terrorists released, but did not.

Gabbard tries to explain Snowden support to skeptical intel leaders

 https://thehill.com/regulation/national-security/5092295-gabbard-defends-snowden-position/

Tulsi Gabbard is trying to explain her past support for Edward Snowden, including her push to pardon the national security leaker, to a tough crowd: members of the Senate Intelligence Committee considering her confirmation. 

When she was still in the House, Gabbard introduced a resolution calling for all charges to be dropped against Snowden. And she urged President-elect Trump at the end of his first term to pardon people who “exposed the deception and criminality of those in the deep state,” in commenting on another post specifically mentioning Snowden.

The Momentous, "Horrific" Hamas-Israel Deal

 https://www.danielpipes.org/22451/the-momentous-horrific-hamas-israel-deal?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=5ac73295c6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_01_17_05_38&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_086cfd423c-5ac73295c6-34088309&goal=0_086cfd423c-5ac73295c6-34088309&mc_cid=5ac73295c6&mc_eid=6e83738f25

In brief, as Israel Hayom's senior diplomatic and White House correspondent Ariel Kahana puts it, "Israel is, with its own hands, helping its enemy to prepare to wage war." Netanyahu obviously knows this, if only because prior exchanges have led to disaster, so why did he agree to an agreement that his own coalition partner Itamar Ben-Gvir called "horrific"?

Because he fears Donald Trump.

The president-elect stated on Jan. 7 that "all hell will break out" in the Middle East if Hamas did not release the captives it held. That seemed to mean, as vice president-elect J.D. Vance interpreted it, pressure on Hamas: "It's very clear that President Trump threatening Hamas and making it clear that there is going to be hell to pay."

But no.

Trump dispatched private citizen and future presidential envoy Steven Witcoff to read Netanyahu the riot act. A report in Ha'aretz tells how Witcoff compelled Netanyahu to break the Sabbath for a meeting in which he was forced "to accept a plan that [he] had repeatedly rejected over the past half year."

How historic Gaza deal was sealed with 10 minutes to spare

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2pp3y68w5o

But sources familiar with the discussions agreed the dynamics of the talks shifted decisively in mid-December and the pace changed.

Hamas, already reeling from Israel's killing of its leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza two months earlier, had become increasingly isolated. Its Lebanon-based ally Hezbollah had been decimated and had agreed to a truce with Israel. Bashar al-Assad's Iran-backed government in Syria had also been swept away.

The view in Washington is that Hamas was forced to abandon the idea that "the cavalry was coming to save it", as one US official put it.

"It is hard to overstate how fundamentally the equation changed and what that [did] for Hamas's calculus," says a senior Biden administration official familiar with the talks.

Ayelet Shaked: Government must resign and call elections

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/402471

In her response, Shaked stressed the concern over the consequences for Israel's security, as well as the moral and strategic price that the deal carries, urging all involved to engage in introspection.

"These are difficult days," Shaked began. "There is great joy in the expectation that the hostages will return, diluted by justified doubts and concerns regarding this government's ability to enforce the harsh conditions of the deal in a way which does not endanger the security of Israel."

Shaked also emphasized the deal's heavy price: "There is a long list of despicable archterrorists, mass murderers, who are being let free. We do not yet know the names and faces of their future victims."

Calling for everyone to remember the soldiers who fell during the war, she added, "First and foremost we must remember, daily, our young men - who are heroes, brave, beautiful and beloved - who sacrificed their lives to protect the nation and bring back the hostages."

Tamar Epstein: Translation of protest by R Shlomo Miller, R E B Wachtfogel, R Moshe Green and R Yechiel Tauber

This is concerning the uproar regarding the case of Tamar Epstein the wife of Aharon Friedman. He has refused to give her a Get for many years because of unresolved issues regarding custody of their daughter.  The facts of the case of been investigated and established by Rav Aharon Feldman. 

There is a "rav" [R Nota Greenblatt] who has given Tamar a heter to remarry without a Get. He  said the marriage was annulled retroactively because of the principle of mekach ta'os (mistaken acquistion). The reason for the mekach ta'os he claims is that the husband (Aharon) suffers from the personality disorders of Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD_ and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD).

However this explanation is not adequate justification for annulling the marriage - since it is obvious that there are many people who have such personality disorders and yet are still able to have a successful marriage. In fact I asked two psychotherapists about this and they both said that these personality disorders are not mental illness but are simply personality traits. Thus there is absolutely no justification to declare the marriage annulled because of mekach ta'os. Furthermore the Beis Din of Baltimore - which is the only beis din that has been authorized by both side and they both appeared before it - has said that there is no sign of mental illness in the husband.

And if as a result of this "psak", reckless and irresponsible rabbis permit other woman to remarry it would mean that there will never be a need for a Get again. That is because the wife will simply claim that she has discovered that her husband has a serious personality problem and that she would have never agreed to marry him if she had known about it before the marriage. As a result of this mistaken reasoning - G-d forbid- it will result in multiplying the number of mamzerim in the Jewish people.

 Besides the above objections to the heter, it is a fact that they remained living together for an extended period of time and she never claimed that her marriage was a mistake -mekach ta'os. And in addition even after the therapist wrote that her husband had these "incurable" personality disorders - she remained living with him for a period of 4 months. Given these facts it is obvious that even if in fact that her husband has this defect of mental illness  (but as we noted before it is not a defect that justifies annulling the marriage ) it is clear that she was able to accept him as a husband and therefore the marriage can not be considered inherently mistaken (mekach ta'os).

Today it is widespread that reckless and irresponsible people who want to resolve every case of aguna by simply saying that the marriage is a mistaken marriage (mekach ta'os). As a result of such an approach the Torah (G-d forbid!) will be deserted and no one will be concerned with the truth as to what the halacha really is. It will be sufficient for these people that they can find some sort of rabbi who will declare that they are free from their marriage and it doesn't concern them whether the rabbi is following the halacha or not.

Today when  the Jewish people is in mortal danger from the sword of the Arabs, we need to ask what sin has brought about these types of afflictions? I am not a prophet  or even the son of a prophet and I don't have esoteric knowledge - but I do know something about the words of our Sages. The sword comes to the world because of those who rebel against the Torah and distort its teaching against the halacha. There is no greater rebellion and distortion of the Torah than to say that it is permitted for a married woman to marry someone else without first receiving a Get from her husband.

In summary, this married woman Tamar Epstein is prohibited to her second husband because she married him without first obtaining a Get from her first husband. Consequently all children she has from her second husband are mamzerim and can not marry other Jews.

Signed in anguish because of the terrible destruction and the public chilul haShem

Rav Shlomo Miller
Rav E B. Wachtfogel
Rav Moshe Green
Rav Yechiel Tauber

Are You Smarter Than a Trump Cabinet Appointee?

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/are-you-smarter-than-a-trump-cabinet-appointee/

 Did Trump lose to Joe Biden in the 2020 election?

Even more than four years later, however, Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi was visibly uncomfortable giving a straight answer when Sen. Dick Durbin flat out asked her: “Are you prepared to say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?”

Kiddush HaShem or Absurd Entitlement at Ikea?

 I recently was informed of a new phenomenon. hareidi high schoolgirls from the best Hasidic and Lithuanian Israeli families are flocking to Ikea furniture stores in flash mobs of hundreds to sit on the chairs and sofas to lie on the beds while studying for tests but not buying anything. They claim the stores don't mind if they interfere with normal business because the store wants to attract chareidi families to come enjoy kosher food in the restaurant or cheap kosher ice cream or for them to be comfortable with the store so that when they get married they will be good customers.  There is a similar development at the New National library which has tried to discourage them by requiring library cards. No such push back seems to have come from Ikea.  The girls don't think they are doing anything wrong by seeking a place to study for their tests without being exposed to unhealthy crowds like at a mall or beach. The schools and parents aren't objecting so it must be alright!

The Israeli right may soon be disenchanted with Trump

 https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/the-israeli-right-may-soon-be-disenchanted-with-trump/

The result, in the hostage case, is an underappreciated diplomatic paradox: Thanks largely to Trump, a deal demanded by the Israeli left and reviled by the right is about to come into effect. A year’s worth of diplomacy by the Biden administration is finally about to bear fruit because of its political nemesis. The far-right parties that are part of Netanyahu’s coalition may bolt the government. And Netanyahu is far more prepared to bend the knee to Washington than he was when there were Democrats in the White House.

A more difficult quandary for the Israeli right is what else Trump may want them to accept. The president-elect clearly wants an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement as a capstone to the Abraham Accords he oversaw in 2020. For that to happen, the Saudis will demand a road map for a Palestinian state. Trump may also prefer to use Iran’s current weakness to negotiate a second nuclear deal, when what Netanyahu most wants is American help in an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, possibly in the next weeks or months.

Trump and Israelis may regret the hostage deal he wanted … and got

https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/trump-and-israelis-may-regret-the-hostage-deal-he-wantedand-got/

While we should all rejoice in their release, no one—least of all Trump, and his foreign and security policy team—should be naive about the consequences of the price Israel is paying to supposedly give him the inauguration optics that he wants.

But by starting his second term with a deal that is a gift to Hamas and Iran, he will be setting himself up for new problems because of an unforced error that Americans and Israelis may have to pay for in blood.

Ben-Gvir: If Gaza ceasefire is implemented, Otzma Yehudit will leave gov't

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-837910

"The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal," Ben-Gvir said in a televised statement, saying it would "erase the achievements of the war" by releasing hundreds of Palestinian militants and withdrawing from strategic areas in Gaza, leaving Hamas undefeated.

Israeli cabinet to vote Friday on ceasefire, hostage release deal with Hamas

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/16/israel-war-gaza-ceasefire-hostages-news-hamas/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been informed by Israel’s negotiation team that agreements have been reached on a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, his office said in a statement early Friday local time. Families of the hostages held by the militant group were also briefed on the agreements.

Ben Shapiro’s Book Is a Glib Rationale for Right-Wing Authoritarianism

 https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/ben-shapiro-new-book-authoritarian-moment-left-trump.html

The bulk of Shapiro’s argument that left authoritarianism is more dangerous than right authoritarianism is done by simply ignoring the latter category altogether. Shapiro has published rationales for Trump’s abuses of power before, but they are largely absent here. The formula is to argue x > y, then proceed to focus entirely on x.

Israel and Hamas sign hostage-ceasefire deal after mediators iron out final kinks

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-january-17-2025/

Netanyahu’s office confirms agreement finalized but says government won’t meet to approve it until Saturday, which will delay the return of the first hostages from Sunday to Monday