Uncategorized
In a Ukrainian city liberated from Russia, local Jewish leaders are being accused of collaboration
(JTA) — When Russian troops poured across the Ukrainian border in March, thousands fled from the cities that would be first in their path. But in Kherson, the southern port city with strategic value to the Russians, Rabbi Yosef Itzhak Wolff decided to stay put.
His decision to remain put him in line with the philosophy of his Jewish movement, Chabad, whose rabbis typically commit to the cities where they are stationed and stay there through thick and thin.
But his decision could also cost him the ability to serve Kherson’s Jews. According to a report this week in the New York Times, Wolff is now in Germany, concerned because some in Kherson accuse him of collaborating with the Russian forces.
Meanwhile, a member of his Jewish community is facing life in prison over his actions during the chaotic early days of the war, according to the New York Times report.
Russia captured Kherson on March 2, 2022, and for months, the city suffered a brutal occupation that resulted in hundreds dead and scores more “disappeared” or tortured, according to Human Rights Watch.
Among those living in the occupied city was Wolff, an Israel-born rabbi who arrived in Ukraine nearly 30 years ago, just after the fall of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s independence. For the past 13 years, he had presided over a Jewish community in Kherson estimated before the war at 8,000 people.
In the early days of the war, Wolff’s work to supply food, medicine and at least some semblance of a joyous Purim to his community was highly publicized.
During one trip, the Times of Israel reported, he dodged bullets shuttling food back to the city from the border with Crimea, where his brother is also a rabbi. In another, according to Chabad.org, he went out to deliver food even as Russian tanks rolled through the town.
“Despite heavy fighting in the streets of Kherson, Rabbi Yosef Wolff did not abandon his community for a moment, remaining in the war-torn city through it all and serving the local population,” Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for the Chabad movement, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He called Wolff a “true hero of the Jewish people and for people of good conscience everywhere.”
Before the Holocaust, Kherson was a major center of Jewish life, with some 26 synagogues, but now, there is only Wolff’s. And before the war, it was like Chabad centers around the world: serving a local community, but also famously welcoming to unfamiliar faces, including foreign visitors.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolff and mayor of Kherson Volodymyr Mykolaienko light Hanukkah candles, Dec. 19, 2017, in Kherson, Ukraine. (PLes Kasyanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Opening the doors to newcomers took on added gravity after the war began and Russians streamed into Kherson. For much of the year, it was unclear whether Ukraine would regain control of the city, or whether it would become like Crimea and remain under Russian occupation. But last month, Ukraine liberated Kherson, generating scenes of jubilation — and putting anyone perceived as collaborating with the Russian army under suspicion.
Some of that suspicion landed on Wolff, who had allowed Russian soldiers to pray in his synagogue. The soldiers were Jewish officers who had arrived with armed guards, he told the New York Times.
In the days after liberation, he left Kherson, and Ukraine, for Germany. Now, with efforts to penalize collaborators underway, he told the newspaper that he is not sure when or if he will return.
Among those who remained in Kherson was a prominent member of the Jewish community who is now being prosecuted for his choices amid the messy reality of occupation.
Illia Karamalikov, a nightclub owner and member of Kherson’s city council, was close to Wolff, frequently allowing Chabad to use his nightclub’s space for events, the rabbi told the New York Times.
In the early days of the occupation, Kherson descended into a state of lawlessness. The Ukrainian civil administration fled ahead of the Russian forces and, after conquering the city without much resistance, Russia took little responsibility for its administration, instead sending soldiers on to other targets such as neighboring regions of Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih — Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelensky’s hometown — and ultimately, Kyiv.
Looting was rampant, and cut off from power and supply lines, the thousands of people who remained in the city faced a real risk of starvation.
It was locals who managed to bring back some semblance of order. Karamalikov helped organize a 1,200-strong community patrol to enforce curfews and watch for looters.
A boy stands with Ukrainian flag in the central square of Kherson after the city was liberated from Russian occupation, Nov. 19, 2022. (Oleksii Samsonov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
It was in that role, according to the New York Times report, that he found himself face to face with a lost and confused Russian pilot, whom his men had taken into captivity. Karamalikov held the prisoner in a utility closet in his home for a night, before ultimately making the decision to return him to the Russian forces unharmed.
That earned him a 12-page indictment from Ukraine, as he ran afoul of new laws enacted at the outbreak of the war that stipulate that “cooperation with the aggressor state, its armed formations, or its occupation administration;” are punishable as acts of collaboration under Ukraine’s criminal code.
Many of those who spoke to the New York Times said the laws don’t account for the reality of living under occupation.
“All these people who ran away are judging us,” Wolff told the newspaper. “These are cruel times.”
Through returning the soldier, Karamalikov allegedly “organized the further participation of a Russian serviceman in aggression against Ukraine,” according to his indictment.
But many in Kherson are not sure what other option they had. Karamalikov’s community watch organization was a volunteer and non-military force whose limited power involved pressing looters into doing community service. To have harmed the soldier would have made them combatants against Russia.
“We wondered later: Should we have killed the soldier and kept it secret?” one of Karamalikov’s watchmen, Andriy Skvortsov told the New York Times. “But I’ve decided no, that wouldn’t have been good.”
“With a life in his hands, I can’t imagine Illia ever killing anyone,” Wolff told the newspaper. “What he did was the most humane decision he could make.”
—
The post In a Ukrainian city liberated from Russia, local Jewish leaders are being accused of collaboration appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Saudi, French, US Officials Push Hezbollah Disarmament Plan
Lebanese army members stand on a military vehicle during a Lebanese army media tour, to review the army’s operations in the southern Litani sector, in Alma Al-Shaab, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, Nov. 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
French, Saudi Arabian, and American officials held talks with the head of the Lebanese army on Thursday in Paris aimed at finalizing a roadmap to enable a mechanism for the disarmament of the Hezbollah terrorist group, diplomats said.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024, ending more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that severely weakened the Iran-backed terrorists.
Since then, the sides have traded accusations over violations with Israel questioning the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and even in the capital.
Speaking after the meeting, France’s foreign ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said the talks had agreed to document seriously with evidence the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah as well as strengthening the existing ceasefire mechanism.
CEASEFIRE AT RISK
With growing fear the ceasefire could unravel, the Paris meeting aimed to create more robust conditions to identify, support, and verify the disarmament process and dissuade Israel from escalation, four European and Lebanese diplomats and officials told Reuters.
With legislative elections due in Lebanon in 2026, there are fears political paralysis and party politics will further fuel instability and make President Joseph Aoun less likely to press disarmament, the diplomats and officials said.
“The situation is extremely precarious, full of contradictions and it won’t take much to light the powder keg,” said one senior official speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Aoun doesn’t want to make the disarming process too public because he fears it will antagonize and provoke tensions with the Shi’ite community in the south of the country.”
With the Lebanese army lacking capacity to disarm Hezbollah, the idea would be to reinforce the existing ceasefire mechanism with French, US, and possibly other military experts along with UN peacekeeping forces, the diplomats and officials said.
The parties agreed to hold a conference in February to reinforce the Lebanese army, Confavreux said.
ISRAELI STRIKES
As officials convened for the talks, multiple Israeli strikes hit towns in southern Lebanon and areas of the Bekaa Valley on Thursday, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets across several areas, including a military compound used for training, weapons storage, and artillery launches, saying the activity violated understandings between Israel and Lebanon and posed a threat to Israel. It also said it struck a Hezbollah militant in the area of Taybeh in southern Lebanon.
Commenting on the attacks, parliament speaker and Hezbollah-allied Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri said the strikes were an “Israeli message” to the Paris conference, NNA added.
Uncategorized
Israel, Germany Sign $3.1 Billion Contract Expansion for Arrow Air Defense System
Flags flutter in front of a radom of the “Arrow Weapon System for Germany” pictured in Annaburg, Germany, Dec. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
Israel and Germany signed a contract worth around $3.1 billion to expand the Arrow-3 air and missile defense system manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries, Israel‘s defense ministry said on Thursday.
Germany first purchased the Arrow system in 2023, as it sees Russia’s intermediate-range missiles as the primary threat to its population and critical infrastructure.
“Combined, the two agreements total approximately $6.7 billion, representing the largest defense export deal in Israel’s history,” the ministry said.
Germany in December became the first European nation to deploy the Arrow air defense system, built to intercept intermediate-range ballistic missiles such as Russia’s Oreshnik, as it seeks to counter what it views as a growing threat from Moscow.
The system, developed by IAI in cooperation with the US Missile Defense Agency, is used as the upper layer of Israel‘s missile defenses, together with the Iron Dome, which takes out short-range threats.
Uncategorized
Trump Administration Imposes Sanctions on Two More ICC Judges for ‘Politicized Actions Targeting Israel’
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a US-Paraguay Status of Forces agreement signing ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, US, Dec. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
US President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on two more judges from the International Criminal Court over their involvement in the court’s case against Israel, ratcheting up Washington’s pressure campaign against the war tribunal.
In November 2024, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.
Israel has adamantly denied war crimes in Gaza, where it has waged a military campaign to eliminate Hamas following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
The Trump administration has already imposed sanctions on nine ICC judges and prosecutors and threatened to designate the court in its entirety – a move that would be detrimental to its operations – if the ICC did not drop its charges against the Israeli leaders.
Washington’s other demands on the court are that it formally end an earlier probe of US troops over their actions in Afghanistan and change its founding statute to ensure that it would not pursue a prosecution of Trump and his top officials, a Trump administration official told Reuters last week.
“The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations. We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject US and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Rubio said the United States was designating ICC judge Gocha Lordkipanidze from Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin from Mongolia and said they had “directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel‘s consent.”
Earlier this year the US administration sanctioned six other judges and the court’s prosecutor Karim Khan and his two deputies.
The measures mean the judges cannot travel to the United States or hold any assets there, but they also make it virtually impossible for them to hold credit cards, making everyday financial transactions and online purchases difficult.
‘FLAGRANT ATTACK’
Rubio referred to the magistrates’ involvement in voting to reject one of several Israeli legal challenges against the ICC probe into its conduct of the Gaza war earlier this week.
The judges named were part of a panel that refused to overturn a lower court decision that the prosecution’s investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction could include events following Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, which included the murder of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 hostages during the Palestinian terrorists’ rampage across southern Israel.
The ICC said it deplored the new round of sanctions, which is the fourth round of measures this year.
“These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution,” it said in a statement, adding that the measures put the international legal order at risk.
The ICC was founded in 2002 under a treaty giving it jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes that were either committed by a citizen of a member state or had taken place on a member state’s territory.
The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. Other countries including the US have similarly not signed the ICC charter. However, the ICC has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, despite no such state being recognized under international law.
Th Netherlands, which hosts the ICC in The Hague, also condemned the sanctions and said international courts should be able to work without interference.
“International courts and tribunals must be able to carry out their mandates unhindered,” Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said on social media platform X.
The ICC’s decision to seek the arrest of Netanyahu has received widespread backlash.
Khan initially made his surprise demand for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on the same day in May that he suddenly canceled a long-planned visit to both Gaza and Israel to collect evidence of alleged war crimes. The last-second cancellation reportedly infuriated US and British leaders, as the trip would have offered Israeli leaders a first opportunity to present their position and outline any action they were taking to respond to the allegations.
However, the ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for starvation in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians — charges vehemently denied by Israel, which has provided significant humanitarian aid into the enclave during the war.
Israel also says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s widely acknowledged military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
US and Israeli officials have issued blistering condemnations of the ICC move, decrying the court for drawing a moral equivalence between Israel’s democratically elected leaders and the heads of Hamas, which launched the war in Gaza with its Oct. 7 atrocities.