2. Initially PM Netanyahu was refusing to include France as one of the sponsors of the ceasefire, due to its stance on arresting Netanyahu should he enter France, as per the ICC ruling. Sure enough, France is then given credit as one of the sponsors of the deal and shortly after PM Macron announces that it will not arrest Netanyahu should he enter France, and he finds a legal way out saying they are not obligated to as Israel is not a party to the ICC (which France knew before the agreement as well).

The ceasefire arrangement with Hezbollah/Lebanon is particularly disturbing regarding the residents f the north.

So the ceasefire with Hezbollah has been officially announced by PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

The IDF has reached the Litani River in Lebanon..

is Lapid wrong? and if so, how?

The big news right now is that Israel is about to sign a ceasefire arrangement with Hezbollah.

Yesterday a missile fell on Bnei Braq. There is actually some dispute as to whether it was Bnei Braq or Ramat Gan as it fell right around the border. Bnei Braq people will never admit to anything falling in Bnei Braq because that contradicts a supposed promise of the Chazon Ish, a promise that was strengthened by Rav Chaim Kanievsky, that bad things wont happen in Bnei Braq (and it has been used to say that rockets will never fall in Bnei Braq).

According to a report in the Washington Post Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already basically agreed to a ceasefire but is only going to put it into effect in January as a gift to incoming US President Donald Trump. Netanyahu does not want to give President Biden a "win" but does want to curry favor with Trump who wants the wars to end (while telling Israel finish the wars but get it done, do what you have to do) so will wait on the arrangements until January when Trump takes office.

MK Kroizer has been booted out of miluim due to the posting of this picture. As of this writing I dont have further details nor an understanding of why but my presumption is that the army, all armies, is all about discipline. Many soldiers got away with similar shenanigans in Gaza for a long time but eventually the IDF started cracking down and putting an end to it.

what is happening now in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran and no doubt soon Iraq and others, is the definition of what happens when you "poke the bear" one time too many...

Minister Smotritch called a press conference today to be held up north to discuss the deteriorating situation on the northern border.

We have not heard form the Lebanese groom in a while. To remind you, Eliyahu Hawila from Lebanon living in the USA posed as a Jew while he became frum, though he was not actually Jewish. Hawila met a nice frum girl form the Syrian community and they dated and married. her family shortly thereafter discovered his real identity and that he is not Jewish and chased him out of town. Hawila went soul searching, I guess, and actually discovered that he is Jewish, as a maternal grandmother a few generations back was Jewish and married a Muslim, and the generations of daughters since had lived as Muslims but were actually Jewish, making him Jewish. this discovery made things even more complicated because, if true, his wife would now need a gett, an official halachic divorce paper and not just a civil divorce. 

Hamechadesh has two pieces that are curiosities that seemed interesting and quirky enough to point out

the story that keeps on giving...