US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Confirms Secret Israel Visit

Good Morning, Israel · Wednesday, October 21, 2026 · 6:57

Good Morning, Israel · Episode 24

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1. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Confirms Secret Israel Visit
2. 21 Contractors, IDF Officers Arrested in Alleged Multi-Million Shekel Fraud Scheme
3. Israel's Education Minister Cancels Standardized Tests
4. Dozens of Chabad Students Detained at Ben Gurion Airport Released
5. Behind Trump's Netanyahu Endorsement: Opposition Efforts and Internal US Debate
6. Gantz Quits Knesset Race, Shifting Political Landscape

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Maya

Twenty-one people arrested, five of them I D F officers, in an alleged fraud against the state during the war in Gaza.

Daniel

Police say the scheme ran through army engineering projects and cost the public millions of shekels.

Maya

This is Good Morning, Israel from baba News. It's Wednesday, October twenty-first. I'm Maya.

Daniel

And I'm Daniel.

Maya

Daniel, fraud is ugly anywhere. Fraud on wartime projects is something else. What happened?

Daniel

On Tuesday, Israeli police arrested twenty-one people. Most are contractors, and five are I D F officers. They're suspected of defrauding the state of millions of shekels through engineering projects in Gaza during the war.

Maya

Engineering projects meaning what, exactly?

Daniel

The material doesn't spell out the individual jobs. But the alleged method is clear. Manipulating invoices, fuel and payments, and outright stealing fuel.

Maya

Fuel. In a war zone, that's not office supplies.

Daniel

Right. Fuel keeps vehicles and heavy equipment moving. If it's being skimmed, that's money and resources meant for an army in combat.

Maya

Where do the five officers fit in?

Daniel

According to police, they acted as intermediaries, the link between the contractors and the system paying them.

Maya

So the people on the inside opened the door.

Daniel

That's the allegation. And because they're serving officers, they'll face a military court. The civilians go before a civilian court.

Maya

Two courts, one case.

Daniel

Exactly. And police say the investigation is ongoing, so that number, twenty-one, may not be final.

Maya

Why does this matter beyond the money?

Daniel

Because hundreds of thousands of Israelis served in that war, many of them reservists who left jobs and families for months. The idea that anyone profited from it hits hard. And the fact that it's being investigated and prosecuted is the system doing what it's supposed to do.

Maya

To education now. Israel's national tests have just been called off.

Daniel

Education Minister Yoav Kisch canceled the national standardized tests on Tuesday. Math, language, science and English.

Maya

All four. That's the whole set.

Daniel

It is. He also halted the ministry's cooperation with the testing authority, the body that runs these exams.

Maya

Was there a problem with the tests?

Daniel

That's the awkward part. A review commissioned by the ministry itself found the exams reliable.

Maya

So his own review said they work, and he scrapped them anyway.

Daniel

Right. And critics suggest the motive was to avoid poor results coming out.

Maya

A week before an election.

Daniel

A week before an election. Kisch is a senior figure in the Likud, Netanyahu's party. Bad scores right now would be a headline nobody in government wants.

Maya

Can't fail a test you never sat.

Daniel

That's the critics' point, more or less. The bigger question is what replaces these tests. Parents and schools use them to see how kids are doing, and right now there's no answer.

Maya

Next, a story about the draft. Dozens of young men from the Chabad movement, detained at Ben Gurion Airport.

Daniel

Chabad is a Hasidic movement, part of the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, world. Its headquarters are in Brooklyn, in New York. These students were returning from Brooklyn when they were detained at Ben Gurion, Israel's main international airport.

Maya

And taken where?

Daniel

To military prison. They've now been released from there and transferred to a recruitment center.

Maya

Why the release?

Daniel

Many of them said they were willing to enlist in the I D F. That's what prompted it. But some are still in custody.

Maya

On Monday we talked about Haredi protesters blocking a highway over draft arrests. Is this the same fight?

Daniel

Same fight, different community. Chabad students have historically had a deferment agreement with the army. So for them, this was a sharp change.

Maya

And the politicians?

Daniel

The Haredi parties reacted angrily. They accused the authorities of election interference and political meddling.

Maya

Meanwhile, the army says it needs soldiers.

Daniel

Exactly. After years of war, the pressure to bring more Haredi men into service is enormous. And this shows a willingness to enforce it even on groups that had their own arrangement.

Maya

Now an update on that quiet visit from Washington. We told you yesterday that Pete Hegseth had come to Israel without announcement.

Daniel

And now he's confirmed it himself. Hegseth, whose title is now U S Secretary of War, says he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and also met American troops stationed in Israel.

Maya

What did he and Netanyahu talk about?

Daniel

He won't say. He declined to disclose the topics. And President Donald Trump also refused to comment on the details of the meeting.

Maya

So we have confirmation, and a lot of silence.

Daniel

Right. As we said yesterday, it comes amid discussions about resuming operations against Iran. And it follows Trump's public endorsement of Netanyahu.

Maya

The secrecy is starting to say more than the statements.

Daniel

It usually does. When neither side will talk, the meeting tends to be about something they really don't want discussed in public yet.

Maya

President Isaac Herzog was in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, talking about antisemitism.

Daniel

He spoke at a conference called Voice of the People. He warned about rising antisemitism and cited a striking statistic, that three out of five British students have faced it.

Maya

Three in five. That's the majority.

Daniel

It is. Herzog stressed that Israel and Jewish communities around the world are bound together. What happens to one affects the other.

Maya

Which is a message to Jews abroad as much as to Israelis.

Daniel

Right. And he urged embracing the diversity within the global Jewish community, all its different streams and traditions.

Maya

And finally, a live report from Paris that didn't go quite as planned.

Daniel

Israeli journalist Neria Kraus was reporting live from Paris. She interviewed a man who said he was Ali, from Baghdad, an Arab supporter of Israel.

Maya

Which would have been a nice moment.

Daniel

It would have. He spoke warmly about Israel on air. Then it turned out he wasn't Ali, and he wasn't from Baghdad. He was an Israeli prankster named Hezi.

Maya

Ali from Baghdad was a guy from Israel.

Daniel

Exactly. He later admitted it on social media. He said he'd posed as an Arab out of boredom.

Maya

Boredom. In Paris.

Daniel

And he said he was surprised the interview actually aired.

Maya

That makes two of them, I imagine.

Daniel

At least two.

Maya

Something to watch today. Whether the Chabad students still in custody are released, and how the Haredi parties respond, with the election just a week away.

Daniel

Follow Good Morning, Israel so tomorrow's episode is waiting for you.

Maya

See you tomorrow morning.