Former Hamas hostage Eli Sharabi's memoir about his experiences in captivity in Gaza is scheduled for release in the United States on Oct. 7, 2025—the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on the Jewish state, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The book, titled “Hostage,” the first published memoir of a freed Hamas captive—has become a best seller in Hebrew.

The English edition will be published by Harper Influence, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

“It was important to me that the story come out as quickly as possible, so that the world will understand what life is like inside captivity,” Sharabi said in a statement cited by AP.

“Once they do, they will not be able to remain indifferent. But I also want readers to know that even in the darkest of times, you can always seek out the light and choose humanity,” the statement continued.

Sharabi, 53, who was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on the border with Gaza, said he had no access to the news in captivity and only learned after his release that his wife and two daughters had been murdered on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I thought I was returning to my family,” he told Channel 12 News at the time. “I had no idea.”

Sharabi met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem ahead of his memoir release, the president's spokesperson said on Thursday.

During the meeting, Sharabi presented Herzog with the book and made an emotional appeal to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump to intensify efforts to secure the release of remaining hostages, urging, “The families of the hostages need closure, they need peace, they need their loved ones home.”

Herzog praised Sharabi’s courage and the importance of his testimony, describing the memoir as “shattering, emotional, and heartbreaking.” Echoing Sharabi’s plea, Herzog called for urgent international action to bring the hostages home, emphasizing that “nothing could be more just or urgent,” and commending Sharabi for ensuring his story will contribute to Israel’s public diplomacy for generations to come.

Sharabi lost more than 66 pounds during his ordeal, and weighed just 97 pounds upon his release on Feb. 8, 2025.

Recounting some of his experiences after his release, he told Channel 12 that he was kept in iron chains during the entirely of his captivity, and was intermittently beaten or otherwise humiliated as he and the three other hostages he was with subsisted for months on end on a single plate of pasta a day.

“Some [captives] were chained part of the time. I was chained for 16 months. Heavy locks tore into my flesh,” said Sharabi.

“People should really think when they open a fridge at home, it’s everything. It’s everything to open a fridge,” he said. “That’s what you dream of every day. You don’t care about the beatings you get. They beat you, they’re breaking my ribs, and I don’t care; give me another half-pita.”

Trump at the time expressed his shock over the appearance of Sharabi and other redeemed hostages, who he said looked like “Holocaust survivors.”

Speaking in front of the United Nations Security Council in March 2025, Sharabi said that Hamas exploited aid from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for its own enrichment.

“I saw Hamas terrorists carrying boxes with the U.N. and UNRWA emblems on them into the tunnel,” Sharabi told the global body. “Dozens and dozens of boxes, paid by your government, feeding terrorists who tortured me and murdered my family.

“They would eat many meals a day from the U.N. aid in front of us, and we never received any of it,” he testified. “When you speak of humanitarian aid, remember this. Hamas eats like kings while hostages starve.”

Harper Influence in a statement cited by AP said that Sharabi writes about his experience in captivity in “stark, unflinching prose, detailing the relationships the hostages formed with one another, including Alon Ohel, still a hostage in Gaza, with whom Sharabi formed an unbreakable father-son bond.”

Moreover, “Along the way, Sharabi reveals how his faith gave him the resilience to endure the horrific conditions and overcome mental anguish.”

“We ride around France with the largest live attendance of any sport in the world,” Sylvan Adams, the president of the World Jewish Congress-Israel and the owner of the elite cycling team Israel-Premier Tech, told JNS on Monday. 

"There are 15 million people who line the streets watching the Tour de France bicycle race over three weeks, plus over two billion TV viewers," he continued. “This is an enormous audience and we are reaching it with the word Israel."

Founded over 10 years ago by Israeli businessman Ron Baron and former rider Ran Margaliot, IPT is competing this year for the sixth consecutive time in the Tour de France, its 112th edition. Adams joined the team nine years ago and became the owner in 2018. 

“The visibility of our name goes that much higher. What we are doing is carrying the good name of Israel, the name of an open, tolerant, fair-play, sporting nation. It’s especially important in this difficult period—post-Oct. 7, 2023,” he said.

 The Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught and the ensuing Gaza war “revealed latent antisemitism that is pervasive in cities all over the Western world. We are facing a very difficult time for world Jewry and I am proud to carry the good name of Israel,” he added.  

Last year, the team made it to the top 10 for the first time in its history.  IPT rider Derek Gee recently finished fourth in the 2025 edition of the Giro d’Italia bicycle race.

“When I joined, we were at the lowest levels of teams. We were a continental team, which does not have the opportunity to race in the biggest races like the Giro and the Tour de France, it is also not eligible to receive a wild-card invitation,” Adams told JNS.

“When I brought the Giro d'Italia to Israel. I realized we couldn’t stay continental, we needed to move to pro. We ended up getting a wild card to race in the Giro two years in a row—the first year because it was on Israeli soil, the second year because we were a very interesting team,” he continued. 

“We moved up to the world tour, now we compete in all the big races. This is our sixth participation in the Tour de France. It’s a huge growth of the team. We recorded two stage wins in 2023. Out of the 22 teams participating, only around six or seven teams won a stage,” he added. 

This year’s Tour, which began in Lille on July 5, will conclude on July 27 at the Champs-Élysées in Paris and has 21 stages racing a total of 2,075 miles (3,338.8 km.).

The IPT team features sprinter Pascal Ackermann (Germany), newcomer Joe Blackmore (U.K.), Guillaume Boivin (Canada), Matîs Louvel (France), Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan), Krists Neilands (Latvia), Critérium du Dauphiné stage winner Jake Stewart (U.K.) and climber Mike Woods (Canada). 

Last year, IPT aimed for stage wins, but ended up changing its strategy as Derek Gee got into a breakaway early in the race and found himself highly placed in the general classification standings. With Gee, IPT finished ninth in the tour. 

“This year, Derek is not here, and we are back to our strategy to hunt for stage wins. Will our strategy change? We have right now Joe Blackmore, who after two stages ranked 6 or 7, so we never know,” Adams continued. 

“Last year, all riders were working to protect and defend Derek’s classification. Because of that, we did not end up winning a stage. If you go for one goal, you have to sacrifice others, so we have to decide as the race evolves,” he said. 

Adams was recently honored in the TIME100 Philanthropy List. Among his many initiatives, he has funded a cutting-edge emergency medicine wing at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) and a new children’s hospital at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.

Two months after the Hamas massacre of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, Adams announced a $100 million donation to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva. 

He invited two survivors of the Hamas massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri to the opening of last year’s Tour de France in Florence. This year, Adams extended an invitation to released Hamas hostages Ofer Kalderon and his son Erez of Kibbutz Nir Oz. 

“The cycling community is a family, and I kind of feel sometimes like I am the father of this family because of my involvement in cycling in the country. I made a public declaration that when they would be released, I would send them a personal invitation to the Tour de France because I know how much they both love the sport of cycling,” Adams said. 

“Erez no longer rides a bike. I don't know if it’s because perhaps he was traumatized, so I am not sure that he will join, but Ofer will be coming,” he continued. 

“In my capacity as the president of WJC-Israel, I have reached out to the office of French President Emmanuel Macron to meet with Ofer and me. I think there is a good chance it will happen; it will be a nice warm gesture on behalf of Macron to give Ofer a hug and receive him at the Élysée Palace,” Adams said. 

Despite the surge of anti-Israel sentiment in Europe, Adams expressed optimism regarding the atmosphere at the Tour. 

“I ride on the course every day, I ride ahead of the race with the same uniform as the team and there are people who camp out. They are there 24 hours in advance to wait for the stage to come by and when we ride by, they see the name and they shout ‘Israel allez, allez!’” he said. 

“The encouraging thing for me is to know that there is this silent majority of people who are not wrapped up in our conflict. 

“Of course, they get negative media coverage about us, but they are regular folks, they are not the radical, hostile antisemitic fanatics sometimes organized by paid operatives,” he continued. 

“We need to fight back. One of the ways to fight back is by reconnecting with that silent majority with our message of peace and sportsmanship. I feel we are doing good and valuable work for the state of Israel,” Adams said. 

As Iranian officials flail about, arresting hundreds of innocent people and executing “dozens” of alleged spies, now is a good time to recall that among the things the Islamic Republic is terrible at, its feeble attempts at counter-espionage stand out as especially inept. While the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other regime thugs search in the most bizarre places for foreign and domestic enemies, an intricate espionage network has been growing right under their noses.

Israeli intelligence officers have been smuggling weapons, drones, communication gear and even vehicles into Iran for years using “suitcases, trucks and tankers.” They and their Iranian agents have been spreading equipment throughout the Islamic Republic.

And what have Iran’s “crazy state” counterespionage professionals been doing?

In 2007, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that “in recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran’s borders. ... The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence agencies.” While the “alert” intelligence agents were preoccupied with spy squirrels, real spies were busy downloading the Stuxnet supervirus into Iran’s enrichment facilities, causing their centrifuges to spin out of control.

In October 2008, Iranian authorities detained two pigeons caught “spying” near the Natanz nuclear facility. Oddly enough, it was not the first case of suspected avian eavesdropping around Natanz. The Etemad Melli newspaper quoted commander Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam, who confirmed the arrests and added that weeks earlier, “a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring with invisible strings.” As Iranian authorities investigated birds, nearby, undetected Mossad agents photographed the reactor site, mapped entrances and ventilation shafts and took GPS coordinates.

During a drought in 2017-18, Brig. Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali accused Israel of “working to ensure clouds entering Iranian skies are unable to release rain.” Jalali, then the head of Iran’s Civil Defense Organization, claimed that “Joint teams from Israel and one of the neighboring countries make the clouds entering Iran barren. Moreover, we are faced with the cases of cloud theft and snow theft.” While Iranian generals looked to the clouds, down on earth, Israeli spies catalogued the regime’s safe houses.

In February 2018, Hassan Firuzabadi, a senior military adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, boasted about Iran’s success in detecting Western spies with an anecdote about a group of people who had infiltrated Iran with “a variety of reptile desert species like lizards, chameleons. … We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic Republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities.”

Firuzabadi, a former chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, couldn’t resist taking a parting shot, boisterously claiming that Western spy agencies “failed every time.”

Of course, the real spies knew exactly where “atomic activities” were being carried out.

Prior to Oct. 7, Israel had accomplished some remarkable feats of spy craft inside Iran. In addition to the Stuxnet caper, Israel killed Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the director of Iran’s nuclear program, on Nov. 27, 2020. He wasn’t the first Iranian nuclear scientist to be eliminated, but Israeli spies accomplished the task with sci-fi panache using a remote-control gun just a few miles east of Tehran.

After Oct. 7, Israel began eliminating its enemies throughout the Iranian terror empire, including in Lebanon, where on July 30, 2024, it killed Fuad Shukr, the Hezbollah co-founder who masterminded the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.

The very next day, Israel foreshadowed what would come in the 12-day war by killing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Its patient spies had smuggled a small bomb into the VIP guest house months prior to the assassination. The hit further degraded an already diminished Hamas, and its precision and timing embarrassed Iran's leaders. 

But it was not until the 12-day war that Israel demonstrated the extent to which its spies had been studying their targets, learning their habits and routines. While Iran’s counter-espionage professionals interrogated and likely executed squirrels, pigeons, and lizards, the real spies had been laboring for decades, and their efforts paid off with spectacular results.

On the first day of the war, June 13, Israel knew the exact whereabouts of commander of the IRGC, Hossein Salami, armed forces chief of staff, Mohammad Bagheri, Brig. Gen. Gholamali Rashid, and the commander of the IRGC aerospace force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh. None lived to see the second day of the war.

Also on the first day of the war, Iran’s top nuclear scientists were hoodwinked into attending meetings and then killed simultaneously. One of them was Fereydoon Abbasi-Devani, who, according to a Wall Street Journal report, recently claimed that he had everything necessary to build a nuclear bomb. “If they tell me to build a bomb, I will build it,” he said.

On the final day of the war, Israel killed Sayyed Mohammad Reza Seddighi Saber, the head of Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, known as SPND, the agency in charge of nuclear explosion research. The U.S. State Department had only recently come to understand Saber’s importance, having sanctioned him in May. Israeli spies knew where he lived.

A ceasefire ended the 12-day war, but psychological operations continued. The normally secretive Mossad even released videos of its commandos assembling counter-missile weapons inside Iran.

Though many top regime figures and nuclear scientists did not survive the brief war, those who did live in fear knowing that Israeli spies are watching them.

The biggest remaining target, of course, is Khamenei, the “Hidden Imam,” who has only been seen in public once since June 11. His bodyguards are probably frisking rats and questioning cockroaches in whatever squalid underground bunker he currently calls home.

Originally published by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Israel Defense Forces troops operating over the past week in the Khan Yunis area of the southern Gaza Strip have killed dozens of terrorists and dismantled more than 130 terrorist sites above and below ground.

Targets included weapons stockpiles, booby-trapped buildings, observation posts and launch positions aimed at Israeli forces.

As part of the operation, Golani Brigade troops—under the command of the IDF’s 36th Division and in coordination with Yahalom special forces combat engineers—discovered and destroyed a terror tunnel stretching approximately 550 yards in length and reaching a depth of 43 feet.

“IDF troops continue to operate against terrorist organizations in Gaza to protect the civilians of Israel, and in particular the residents of the communities near the Strip,” the military said in a statement.

Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, conducted a field tour and held a situational assessment in Khan Yunis on Monday, as part of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots.”

“We are determined—let this be clear to everyone—determined to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves: the return of the hostages, the defeat of Hamas and the safe return of our communities,” Zamir said.

“We will continue to act here with determination, with perseverance, with strength and with wisdom—and we will lead to victory,” he added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday for a second time in 24 hours, to discuss a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Netanyahu, in a statement released thereafter by the Prime Minister’s Office, said the talks “focused on the efforts to release our hostages.

“We are not relenting, even for a moment, and this is made possible due to the military pressure by our heroic soldiers,” said the premier. “The release of all of our hostages—the living and the deceased, and the elimination of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, thereby ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel.”

French prosecutors announced on Wednesday that they are seeking to bring six individuals to trial before a special terrorism court in connection with a 1982 attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris, which killed six people and wounded 22 others.

One of the suspects, Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, has been held in custody in France since late 2020. Arrest warrants for the remaining suspects have been issued, though it is not known whether the five are in France, Reuters reported.

The attack on the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant—carried out with grenades and machine guns—was the deadliest antisemitic assault in France since World War II. Israel and other Western intelligence agencies said it was perpetrated by the Abu Nidal Palestinian terrorist organization.

In addition to Abu Zayed, who is suspected of being one of the gunmen involved in the attack, France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office also named Nizar Tawfik Mussa and Mahmoud Khader, who are wanted on charges of murder and attempted murder linked to a terrorist organization. Three other individuals are sought on charges of aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder within the same context.

A judge must now determine whether to approve the request and proceed with a trial.

A significant shipment of D9 bulldozers from the United States, recently released by the Trump administration, arrived in Israel Wednesday as part of a large-scale military resupply operation, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced.

The delivery marks a milestone in the ongoing efforts to bolster Israel’s defense capabilities since the outbreak of the current war and comes after months of delays.

In November, it was reported that the Biden administration froze the delivery of 134 Caterpillar bulldozers for several months as part of a partial U.S. arms embargo on the Jewish state, despite the Israeli government, having paid for them, awaiting State Department approval for their export.

On Jan. 25, five days after Trump took office for his second term, the White House lifted the embargo on sending the D9 large track-type tractor bulldozers to the IDF, 1,700 heavy bombs to the Israeli Air Force from Boeing, and other weapons.

The bulldozers are primarily used for flattening structures in the Gaza Strip as part of Israel's military campaign against Hamas terrorist infrastructure.

Since the beginning of hostilities, Israel’s Defense Ministry said that it has coordinated the transport of more than 100,000 tons of military equipment. This unprecedented logistical effort has included 870 flights and 144 sea shipments, making it the largest air and sea supply operation in the nation’s history.

The latest shipment, which landed Wednesday morning at the Port of Haifa, consisted of dozens of D9 bulldozers and additional ground force equipment.

The operation was a joint effort led by the Defense Ministry's procurement delegation in the U.S., the IDF Planning Directorate and the ministry's International Defense Transportation Unit.

Upon arrival, the equipment was swiftly unloaded and transferred onto dozens of trucks from the IDF’s Transport Unit and Technology and Logistics Directorate, before being sent for the installation of protective armor.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, director general of the Ministry of Defense, personally received the shipment at Haifa Port.

He emphasized the importance of the delivery, saying: “The shipment of D9 bulldozers is part of a broad-scale build-up effort, involving munitions and weaponry worth billions of shekels, which the American administration released and the Ministry of Defense purchased and transported to Israel. In recent weeks, we have received many ships and cargo planes in the country. We must continue to strengthen our force build-up to support all the IDF’s needs in the current campaign and in preparation for the coming decade.”

A Defense Ministry spokesperson described it as “a very important shipment that we have been waiting for a long time,” highlighting the critical role such equipment plays in ongoing and future military operations.

The Defense Ministry has indicated that these efforts will continue, with ongoing shipments planned to ensure the Israel Defense Forces is fully equipped to meet immediate operational needs and long-term strategic objectives.

At the site of a 1941 massacre in Poland—where local residents murdered their Jewish neighbors—unidentified individuals on Monday installed a large monument with plaques that falsely blame the atrocity on the Nazis and accuse Jewish Communists of murdering Poles.

Michael Schudrich, the chief rabbi in Poland, called the incident at Jedwabne near Bialystok a “disgrace,” the Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported on Thursday.

Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, or IPN, has said that at least 340 Jews were butchered by their neighbors in the massacre at Jedwabne on July 10, 1941, amid a power vacuum following Germany’s invasion of Poland.

Revisionist historians and nationalistic activists have insisted that Poles were solely victims of Nazi savagery who did not perpetrate atrocities against Jews during World War II and the Holocaust. Before September 1939, three million Jews lived in Poland, almost all of them murdered—about 90%—during the war that lasted until 1945.

In 2018, the Polish legislature passed laws that make it illegal to blame Poles for Nazi crimes, a move that caused political friction between Warsaw and Jerusalem.

The Nazis also murdered millions of non-Jewish Poles in Poland. And many Poles hid, rescued and saved Jews during the Holocaust, in addition to those who betrayed them to the Nazis.

The text in English and Polish on the plaques, which were apparently placed illegally about 30 yards from the official Jedwabne memorial, offers a revisionist account of what happened there.

One of the plaques reads: “After the Soviets took over eastern Poland, Jews assumed administrative roles and, knowing the local realities, denounced Polish patriots who were then deported and murdered by the Soviets. Only the German attack on the Soviet Union halted these repressions,” but "then the Germans began killing Jews just as they had previously killed Poles by the millions.”

According to the ahistorical account, the Germans “devised a plan to cleanse the rear areas of the front from Soviet officials, many of whom were of Jewish origin. According to some historians and eyewitnesses, [there are] accounts of Polish responsibility for the murder of Jews in Jedwabne," but “in reality, the crime was committed by a German pacification unit under the command of Hermann Schaper,” reads another plaque.

Alerted the Polish media

Local activist Kamil Mrozowicz discovered the plaques while preparing for the annual ceremony at Jedwabne on the anniversary of the killings, and he alerted the Polish media.

Asked by JNS who he thinks was responsible for the display, he said it was most likely the work of “neo-fascists" associated with two far-right local organizations and pointed to a recent social media post by Wojciech Sumliński,” a journalist who has been promoting the narrative exonerating Poles from the Jedwabne murders.

On June 26, Sumliński tweeted: “We are taking Jedwabne back from the liars—we are taking away their ability to slander Poland and Poles, an ability they have exploited repeatedly for decades! Thanks to your support, we will create a place of remembrance there, serving as an alternative to the deceitful monument that exists today."

JNS queried Sumliński, who did not respond by press time.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a forceful address Wednesday night at a reception for Jewish and Christian leaders at Blair House in Washington, attended by U.S. generals, senators and other dignitaries.

The prime minister thanked President Donald Trump for his historic preemptive actions against the Iranian nuclear threat, saying it was an existential threat to both countries.

"In great devastation, they would come with nuclear warheads. They would destroy your cities. They say, 'Death to Israel.' We're simply in the way, but the real goal is death to America," Netanyahu said.

"President Trump understood what was in America's interest. I understood what was in the Jewish state's interest. And those interests are completely coherent. We worked together as a team—a team like no other," the premier continued, comparing their actions to World World II when the U.S. did not join the fight until Pearl Harbor was attacked.

In striking the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan nuclear sites in Iran last month, Trump "didn't wait to be bombed."

Trump demonstrated "great leadership," Netanyahu said, praising the pilots of the American B2 bombers.

"I think it's incredible. President Trump did what no other president did—he actively engaged in battle, in the defense of his allies but also the defense of the United States," he said.

He pointed out that the dire media predictions against American intervention did not pan out.

"So we acted together in that partnership, and we delivered the benefits of victory against an evil regime. That changes history."

Netanyahu said that Israel's survival was threatened by "two life-threatening cancerous growths developing in this cancerous regime not far away from us," referring to the Islamic Republic's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

"If we didn't act within a year, Iran would have had a nuclear bomb. And time was running out," the prime minister said. The Iranian regime also planned to build tens of thousands of missiles aimed at the Jewish state, the "equivalent to two atomic bombs.

"If you act, you might need to act again. But if you don't act, you will die," Netanyahu said.

"We did not make the journey of 3,500 years of Jewish history—overcoming the greatest odds any people have faced, coming back to our ancestral homeland, building our state—to have it demolished by these mad ayatollahs. We decided to act. We did act. We acted with the courage of our people."

Balaam didn't deliver

He explained why he called it "Operation Rising Lion," which comes from this week's Torah portion, Balak.

"It relates to Balak and Balaam. Balak was one of the kings who wanted to destroy the Israelites. He hired a seer—his name was Balaam. He appears in historical evidence beyond the Bible. Balak wanted him to give a prophecy that would assure the destruction of the Jews. But Balaam didn't deliver. Instead, he delivered a prophecy: 'The people shall rise like lions.'

"Our soldiers are lions—our fighting soldiers, our people. So we rose like lions," Netanyahu said.

Looking to the future, the prime minister said that "we need to reap the fruits of peace" following the show of military strength.

"First, we must ensure that Iran does not get nuclear weapons, because they'll try again. When you take out a cancer, it can reappear. You have to make sure it doesn't," Netanyahu said. "There are possibilities of peace that are mind-boggling. We're working on it. The less said, the better."

He then reflected on the Abraham Accords reached during Trump's first term in office, which saw Israel normalize relations with four Arab Muslim countries.

"President Trump and I worked for three years with a close team on the Abraham Accords. Nobody knew, and then it happened. The same is happening now. We've already changed the Middle East, but we're going to change it even further, and we're going to give it a brilliant future—the one the people of Israel deserve, our neighbors deserve and the world deserves," Netanyahu said.

He personally acknowledged his wife, Sara Netanyahu, who joined the premier this week in Washington.

"It is said in the Bible, 'Anything that Sara said to you, listen to it.' So I've listened to Sara. She stood by me all these years amid much sacrifice and with incredible courage.

"Without her unrelenting support and wise judgment, I could not have done this. President Trump always says, 'You have a secret weapon.' I want to express our common appreciation for her efforts and her sacrifice."

In closing, Netanyahu discussed the Jewish mission in its historic homeland and the perseverance of the Jewish people.

"Finally, I want to say this: We have secured unbelievable victories. It gives us an opportunity to chart a different course for our people, our region and the world.

"This could not have been done without the innate mission of the Jewish people to reclaim our homeland and build our future in our ancestral home. It is a powerful thing."

Leah Hochhauser, a mother of six from Stamford Hill, London, spent the final years of her life fighting on two fronts: a serious lung disease and a battle for her freedom.

Though separated from her husband, she remained legally married under Jewish law because he refused to grant her a get – a religious divorce document required to dissolve a marriage in Orthodox Judaism. Despite her deteriorating health, the rabbinical court (Beit Din) declined to issue a seruv—a formal notice that her husband was refusing to comply with a court order, and a powerful tool that may have helped pressure him to agree to the divorce, citing concern for his mental state.

“She begged them,” said Ramie Smith, co-founder of GettOutUK, a British organization advocating for women stuck in religious limbo. “She told them the stress was taking a toll on her illness. But they refused. She died still chained to her marriage.”

Before her passing, Hochhauser told Smith that the protests organized on her behalf were the first time she felt anyone was fighting for her. Her story is not unique.

Hochhauser was one of thousands of women around the world navigating a Jewish legal system that too often leaves them vulnerable, voiceless and bound.

A new survey by Israeli advocacy group Chochmat Nashim has revealed the scale of the problem. Of nearly 400 women surveyed across 11 countries, 45.5% said they had experienced get refusal.

A get is the religious document a husband must willingly give—and the wife must accept—for a Jewish divorce to be valid. Without it, a woman remains married under Jewish law and cannot remarry. A woman in this situation is called an agunah, meaning that she is “chained” to the marriage.

The survey, conducted through the Rate My Beit Din initiative, also found that nearly one in three women were pressured to give up custody, financial rights or legal representation in exchange for their get. Almost half reported that the process had harmed their mental health.

“These statistics aren’t just numbers; they’re lives,” said Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, co-founder of Chochmat Nashim. “Jewish law mandates compassion in the divorce process. Instead, too many women are trapped, unsupported and traumatized by the very system that is supposed to protect them.”

One woman surveyed said she waited three years for her get. In the end, she gave up custody of her children to be released. “And no one is accountable,” she wrote.

The survey also revealed geographic disparities. In Israel, where women are assigned courts based on location, more than two-thirds reported experiencing get refusal, the highest rate of any country surveyed. In the United Kingdom and Australia, large percentages of women waited over a year, and in some cases over three years, to be released from their marriages.

In most Western countries, women can choose their Beit Din. But until now, they had little information to compare them.

That’s where Chochmat Nashim’s Rate My Beit Din initiative comes in. Modeled after consumer review platforms, the site allows women to evaluate rabbinical courts based on professionalism, fairness, respect, and transparency. (“Think of us as ‘Yelp’ for batei din,” reads the website.)

“The goal isn’t to shame,” said Keats Jaskoll. “It’s to highlight courts doing it right—and to bring accountability to those that need improvement.”

For Smith, the biggest barrier to justice is a lack of structure and oversight. “Batei din (rabbinical courts) must formalize their processes,” she said. “That starts with issuing official summonses—not relying on off-the-record calls that can be ignored or manipulated.”

Most critically, she said, courts must issue seruvim—public declarations that a spouse is refusing to cooperate—so that communities can apply social pressure and advocates can speak publicly without fear of legal retaliation.

In Orthodox Judaism, a seruv is akin to a contempt of court order. Without it, community members may have no idea a man is withholding a get, and women have no leverage.

“In countries like the U.K., where defamation laws are strict, the seruv is essential,” said Smith.

In Hochhauser’s case, despite years of public outcry, multiple court appearances, and even social protests outside the Beit Din, no seruv was issued. According to those close to her, her husband had long since moved on with his life, while she remained tethered to a marriage that no longer existed in any practical sense. She died in 2021, still halachically married.

Some rabbinical courts have responded positively to the survey. “They’ve contacted us to say they’ve updated their websites, added trauma training, or changed how they handle domestic abuse cases,” said Keats Jaskoll.

Still, resistance remains. Some within the Orthodox world see criticism of rabbinical courts as an attack on halacha (Jewish law).

“That’s simply not true,” said Smith. “Dayanim (rabbinical judges) have a sacred duty to uphold halacha. Advocates serve clients. Activists push the system to be better. Each role strengthens the others.”

Keats Jaskoll echoed this view. “This isn’t about undermining tradition. It’s about protecting it. Jewish marriage should be sacred. Jewish divorce should be dignified.”

Based on the survey findings, Chochmat Nashim has outlined a set of halachically sound recommendations:

• Formal training for rabbinic judges in trauma and mediation;
• Transparent oversight and complaint mechanisms;
• Standardized case timelines;
• Guaranteed rights to legal representation;
• Clear, public metrics of Beit Din performance.

“These are simple steps that can ease suffering and restore dignity,” said Keats Jaskoll. “They don’t threaten Jewish law; they support it.”

British legal expert Daniel Greenberg, author of Getting a Get, agreed. “Transparency through shared experience is the key to change,” he said. “The Rate My Beit Din platform is a powerful tool for empowering individuals and improving the system.”

Since the survey’s release, dozens of women have contacted Chochmat Nashim to report ongoing cases of get extortion.

“It’s like a dam broke,” said Keats Jaskoll. “Once the data came out, women began speaking up. Some are still trapped. But now they know they’re not alone.”

Despite the grim statistics, both Keats Jaskoll and Smith remain hopeful. They point to rabbinical courts that are taking proactive steps to improve—and to the growing willingness of communities to hold their institutions accountable.

“The pain is real. The failures are undeniable. But the momentum is there,” said Smith. “When we talk openly, when we gather data, when we hold each other to higher standards. We can create change. Not just for the women currently stuck in the system, but for generations to come.”

Keats Jaskoll added, “The Beit Din system lacks fundamental accountability. This is the first-ever collection of data on participants’ experiences. Without transparency or oversight, the stories vary wildly. The only way to fix urgent problems is to understand them.”

Smith stressed that the movement for reform isn’t adversarial; it’s collaborative. Those pushing for change aren’t trying to fight or dismantle the rabbinical courts or religious authorities. Instead, they want to work together to strengthen them, so that no woman spends her final breath fighting a battle she should never have had to face.

“This isn’t about blame,” she said. “It’s about responsibility. And we all share it.”