02/09/2026
This Week Today
Current Events from Israel
This week left-wing American Jews were hanging out with Achmed Mamdani and right-wing American Jews were hanging out with JD Vance. It’s the month of Elul folks, Rosh Hashanah is right around the corner, maybe hang out with some holy Jewish texts a bit more than these Jew-hating clowns.
Iran
Things seem to be popping off a little more than normal over in Iran and consequently throughout the region - but not in Israel! The US and Iran continue to duel over the Strait of Hormuz or the future name that President Trump has suggested: “The Trump Strait”. American aerial bombings expanded to other parts of Iran and Iran launched missiles and drones against US bases in Bahrain, Iraq, the Emirates and Jordan. President Trump has assured everyone that this will all be over very soon with the collapse of the Iranian regime. That would definitely be one heck of a way to head into US Congressional elections in November.
Gaza
In a shocking move, Israeli forces entered Gaza City, along with allied Arab militias, and detained the head of Hamas internal security - basically the head of their FBI. He was brought to Israel where he must be having a lovely time right about now. Once they get the info that he has out of him, it’s only a matter of time before Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir formally requests to feed him to a crocodile. This is a massive blow to Hamas. It would have been one thing to kill him - as Michael Corleone wisely instructed us: “if history has taught us anything, it’s that you can kill anybody”. It’s a whole different game to come get the guy and bring him out and video the whole thing! Quite frankly, this could be a mortal blow to Hamas in Gaza.
In addition to this incredible operation, Israel continued this week to eliminate prominent Hamas terrorists throughout Gaza, especially those who participated in Oct. 7th. Like shootin’ fish in a barrel. There are rumors of an IDF incursion coming very soon deeper into Gaza. Israeli politicians also need some nice victories heading into elections.
Lebanon
Israeli forces continue to light up southern Lebanon pretty constantly. Every terrorist that sticks his head up, gets whacked, from the sky. It is estimated that very few terrorists remain holed up on the Ali Al-Taher ridge. Once that falls, it will be very hard for Hezbollah to recover in southern Lebanon. It’s very possible the fight will move further north, but that remains to be seen for now. Events in Iran may play a decisive role in what eventually happens. What’s for sure is that the Lebanese army will play very little role, if any at all. They are totally irrelevant.
Judea and Samaria
Every day brings a different dedication ceremony of a new Jewish community somewhere in Judea and Samaria. The successes are just staggering and completely unprecedented. All of these new communities will grow larger and add various forms of infrastructure in the very near future - in extremely strategic areas.
Speaking of which, a property owned by Jews from before 1929 was reclaimed and cleaned of debris this week in the center of the Old City of Hevron. There were recently an especially large amount of videos of leftists online whining about Jews touring the “Casba”/central market in Hevron this past Shabbos. I guess that was just foreshadowing for what was coming. It only gets so much better from here!
After chronic theft of Jewish-owned livestock in the area of the terrorist nest of al-Mughayyir in the Binyamin region, Israeli forces finally entered the village to return the animals to their owners. Local terrorists attacked the forces and, like pretty much everywhere else these days, it went very bad for them. So much winning.
The IDF vs. Judaism
One area where there is less winning is another front that has recently intensified and that’s the IDF vs. Judaism. This week, over a dozen Givati infantry soldiers, serving in the Hesder Yeshiva framework, were jailed for refusing to enter an armored personnel carrier with a female paramedic. This order was in clear violation of both Jewish law and army regulations. Everyone knows this. However, the Chief of Staff, who is obviously a hired stooge for the left, forced the commanders to jail the soldiers. There are ongoing efforts to have the punishment cancelled, including by the Chief Rabbi. It’s inspiring that the soldiers refused, but the intended message to potential religious recruits is clear - don’t come here!
IDF reservists have been punished, in at least two incidents recently, for praying. Yes, you read that correctly. One was at the Tomb of Elazar (son of Aaron, brother of Moses) and the other was with the righteous hilltop youth, near Shiloh. It’s all so biblical!
Israeli Politics
The final deadline for submitting final party lists for the upcoming Israeli Knesset elections is in a week. There should be a good amount of moves and shenanigans leading up to this date. Basically there are a number of new parties that are polling below the electoral threshold and are predicted to not have enough support to enter the next Knesset. However, if they were to join together, maybe things would be different.
So this week, Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut party joined with the Religious Zionists party led by Betzalel Smotrich. Smotrich’s party is now no longer considered at risk of not passing the threshold and will likely strengthen considerably in the coming weeks. This is a significant boost to the current coalition and the chances of Netanyahu returning as Prime Minister once again.
There could be some kind of unification of “centrist” parties, but even all together, they still may poll below the threshold. Many voters will be very reluctant to vote for a party with a chance of not actually entering the Knesset. Despite the false claims of the Israeli leftist media, things are looking very good for the “right” come election day in Israel after the Holidays.
-Ben Packer
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