The Torah Scholars Council of the Agudat Israel branch of the Haredi (ultra-orthodox) Torah Judaism party has instructed its parliament members to leave Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government. Agudat Israel is the Chassidic branch of the Torah Judaism party. The other branch, Degel HaTorah generally represent the Lithuanian branch of Ashkenazi Haredi Jews.

This comes after the current government has so far failed to pass a law that would exempt religious Yeshiva students from some military service, or offer a military service for very religious Jewish men. The leading rabbis who oversee the ultra-orthodox parties have complained that military service for religious men would pull them away from a religious life. Skeptics and opponents of the power that the ultra-religious parties have wielded over Israeli governments over the past decades. Both the Ashkenazi Torah Judaism Party, and the Mizrachi Shas party have applied pressure on governments to continue exempting men who study at Yeshivas from mandatory military service.

A recently recorded telephone conversation was released, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to convince a high ranking rabbi of from the Lithuanian branch of the Haredi community of his efforts to appease their political demands. He spoke on the phone with Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsh, a leading member of the Torah Leaders Council of the Degel Hatorah branch. In the recorded conversation, Netanyahu mentioned his tactics and plans to establish a special military program specifically for Heradi men who are not full-time Yeshiva students.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered to appoint Major General David Zini to replace Ronen Bar as head of Israel’s General Security Services. Netanyahu has been seeking to fire Bar for several months over various political disputes. He has tentatively offered the post to Zini (behind the back of the Chief of Staff, no less); however, Israel’s Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, and the High Court of Justice have rejected both the firing of the existing Security Services head and the appointment of his replacement.

Clinical data of Cytora's oral mucosa stem cells treatment shown to be safe and may be efficient as a disease modifying therapy in moderate stages of Multiple System Atrophy

The world is leaving Israel out in the cold, at least diplomatically, and the current Israeli government is more insular and distant than the State of Israel has been since its founding. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and with recent developments in the Middle East, the decision-making process has not included Israel, including decisions by Israel’s allies that affect Israel.

US president Donald Trump’s recent tour of Arab monarchies around the Persian Gulf has give Israel a rude awakening of its limited influence and ability to affect political decisions in the region. Even Israel’s strongest ally in the world can bypass the Israeli government, the personal egos of its leaders, and even its national and security interests, for a bit of political expedience. Trump succeeded in convincing the Emir of Qatar to pressure Hamas to release one hostage it was holding, Israeli soldier and US citizen Edan Alexander, without negotiating a ceasefire or prisoner exchange. This concession from both Qatar and Hamas was done with no official Israeli participation. Israel was completely kept out of the decision process.

Israel woke up, or rather Israeli politicians and government officials woke up to another reality check that they were all unprepared for the decisions of other influential parties in the region, even to decisions by, again, Israel’s most powerful ally.

The news that Trump is fed up with Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is bittersweet. On the one hand, Bibi is actively harming Israel’s national interests in order to keep it in a perpetual state of war on multiple fronts rather than doing what is necessary to free the hostages and protect our borders. On the other hand, Trump’s decisions over the past week also harm Israel - not just Bibi.

Last Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke at the World Bible Quiz for Jewish Youth and said that the primary goal of Israel’s ongoing war was not the return of the hostages but to defeat Hamas and Israel’s enemies.

The comments prompted a strong backlash from the families of captives. Meanwhile, military plans to expand operations in Gaza move forward amid diminishing hopes for a hostage deal.

Responding to Netanyahu, the mother of the kidnapped Matan Tsengaukar, Einav Tsengaukar, harshly attacked Netanyahu and his government. “I'm tired of being silent and I'm tired of being diplomatic. I've decided that from today on, my ultimate goal, as Matan's mother, is to overthrow the prime minister and to oust him and his bloody government, and send them home” (note that the link for this quote is in Hebrew).

100 Days of Trump For Better or Worse

Its been a long and confusing week, both in Israel and the United States, not to mention the rest of the world. In this issue, our focus is more mixed than we would like - we too are confused. We begin this issue with a look at the 2nd Trump administration from both an Israeli and American viewpoint (we may very well fail in part two). This is followed by a report on the Hostage issue which unfortunately is still urgent and Israel’s most recent scandal involving Netanyahu’s and his attempts avoid taking responsibility for Israel’s worst disaster.

Our two newest editors each focus on different issues:

Hagay Vider focuses on how “long-term investment policies” by foreign countries with their own agendas have damaged the American higher education system. There is more than meets the eye to the Trump vs. Harvard fight and we strongly recommend that you read what Hagay has to say.

Shmuel Goldstein, in his “The Road to Pravda” series, strays from its mission of showing how mainstream media’s deterioration of journalism into propaganda on anything related to Israel. This week he analyzes what at first glance appears to a recent local tragedy in Israel to show how western cultural assumptions can be just as misleading as swimmer who treats sharks as if they were pet dogs and cats. Yes - here in Israel we have supposedly intelligent people who can be just as stupid as some of the dumbest Americans.

On Friday, the Prime Minister made a dramatic announcement that he would be making an important — albeit recorded — press conference on Saturday night, thus raising the hopes of the hostages’ families that he would finally be ending the war and returning all of their loved ones. Their hopes were quickly dashed the next night...

This week we have a number of different articles that do not necessarily reflect the opinions of all of our editors - so you may see a number of different focuses. These include:

• Editorial: Are We Being “Two-Faced” When We Tell the World Israel Is Truly Free?

• The Cost of Protecting Israel’s First Family, and the Efforts to Cover it Up

• The Road to Pravda - Rock Throwing Yutes

• Harari’s Playbook for Dictatorship: A Chilling Parallel to Netanyahu’s Actions

If you disagree with some of these - that’s a good sign and all the more reason to forward the newsletter to friends and relatives!

This Passover has been as bittersweet a holiday as it’s ever been (or at least since the Holocaust). Having family together and celebrating freedom is always sweet, but this year it almost feels like we are still waiting for sea to part because 59 of our people are still being held in conditions worse than the slaves of Egypt.

We know that you are busy and preoccupied with Passover week and for most of you, who live outside of Israel, celebrating the 2nd Seder. So we’ll keep this week’s newsletter short. And we ask you to do at least one thing each day of Passover week to keep the fate of the remaining 59 hostages in the public eye. Ideas… Tie yellow ribbons in public places, call or write a local politician or news source, call for President Trump to step in where Prime Minister fails to act (sounds terrible - but Bibi is no Moses).