Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would be discussing "all pending issues," including the Iran war, during his visit to Washington this week. "Tomorrow I will fly to Washington to meet, at his invitation, with President Trump," Netanyahu said in opening remarks ahead of a government meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday. The premier said he would also attend a memorial service for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, whom he described as "one of Israel's greatest friends...
(JNS) — Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said on Saturday that threats by New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani to possibly order the arrest of Israel’s prime minister will not dissuade Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking “proudly” at the U.N. General Assembly’s annual General Debate in the Big Apple in September. “Zohran Mamdani has failed at managing New York, and instead of fulfilling his role as mayor and fighting the rising wave of antisemitism in his city, he chooses to engage in incitement and generate headlines thr...
(JNS) — Hamas’s newly appointed leader Khalil al-Hayya delivered a television address in the Arabic language on Wednesday in which he vowed to continue in the path established by his predecessors, including Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the architects of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel’s south. Al-Hayya said he is assuming the role with a “heavy burden” in a “delicate and sensitive stage in the history of our national cause,” according to Al Jazeera. “The first thing we affirm is that we will walk the same path, carrying the banner high...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday identified 12 Palestinian soccer players, coaches and a FIFA referee whom it said served in the “military” wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, explaining why it eliminated them and rejecting what it described as a false campaign accusing Israel of deliberately targeting athletes during the war in Gaza. The military said that the men were targeted because of their involvement in terrorist activity, not because of their roles in soccer. According to the IDF, after they were killed, many...
(JNS) — Several dozen Hezbollah terrorists remain trapped inside a tunnel complex in the area of Southern Lebanon’s Ali al-Taher Ridge, with supplies expected to run out within days, Channel 12 News reported on Monday. Israel Defense Forces soldiers are positioned at the tunnel exits, preventing the estimated 40 Hezbollah operatives from leaving, the report said. With supplies dwindling, however, the military is preparing for the possibility that the terrorists could attempt to carry out a surprise attack. The Ali al-Taher Ridge reportedly con...
(JNS) - The Israeli military's deployment to earthquake-stricken Venezuela has become the longest humanitarian assistance mission ever conducted by the Home Front Command, as teams continue operating into a third week following widespread coastal destruction. Some 32 Israeli experts remain on the ground in La Guaira, near Caracas, according to Monday's Israel Defense Forces statement, assisting Venezuelan authorities in shifting from emergency response to long-term rehabilitation. IDF Brig....
(JNS) — Israel’s parliament on Monday night gave final approval to a new Basic Law declaring Torah study a foundational value of the Jewish state. The 120-member Knesset passed the Basic Law: Torah Study in its second and third readings by a vote of 63-52. While Israel does not have a formal written constitution, the set of Basic Laws passed since the country’s founding in 1948 have quasi-constitutional status. The legislation, sponsored by lawmakers Yaakov Asher and Moshe Gafni of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, states that...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz renewed his call to establish Nahal outposts in northern Gaza, telling Israel’s Channel 14 television station that the move would help protect communities along the border. “I intend to establish three Nahal outposts, which is also a military entity, in those places that were in northern Gaza,” Katz told the broadcaster during a tour of the Gaza Strip. Nahal is a program within the Israel Defense Forces that combines military service with educational and social welfare projects, often involvi...
(JNS) - Israel's Consumer Price Index has seen a 1.2 percent increase since the beginning of the year, marking the lowest inflation rate in the country in five years, according to data published by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. The data, running up to June, showed no change in the CPI rate compared to May. Consumer prices have increased by 1.6 percent over the past 12 months, since June 2025. Notable price declines were recorded in the categories of fresh vegetables and...
(JNS) - Jerusalem was ranked as the world's seventh-best city in the World's Best Awards 2026 list in a survey published on Tuesday by the highly esteemed U.S. travel magazine Travel + Leisure. Israel's capital also topped the rankings as the best city in the Middle East and North Africa. Running for 31 consecutive years, this year's survey registered more than 661,000 votes by roughly 207,000 readers, across more than 10,088 total properties that include cities, hotels, cruise lines and more,...
(JNS) — Israeli Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strook called on Monday for building Jewish communities throughout all of Judea and Samaria, including in Palestinian Authority-administered areas. Strook, a member of Israel’s Security Cabinet, told Arutz Sheva that the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reversed what she described as much of the damage caused by the Oslo Accords signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s, as well as the 2005 disengagement from northern Samaria. However, St...
(JNS) — Israel recently shared intelligence with the United States indicating that Iran was considering a new plot to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to a report published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal. The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said the intelligence represented a potential escalation in the confrontation between Washington and Tehran. According to the newspaper, U.S. officials had not previously been aware of the specific intelligence provided by Israel. The Israeli embassy in Washington d...
(JNS) - Israeli pianist and former Hamas hostage Alon Ohel performed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz on Saturday as part of the United States' 250th Independence Day celebrations. Ohel was invited by American singer-songwriter John Ondrasik, known professionally as Five for Fighting, to join him in performing the song "Superman" on the carrier's flight deck during the central holiday events tied to the International Naval Review 250 in New York City. The USS Nimitz, which has been in...
(JNS) — The American military struck dozens of targets across Iran overnight in the fourth round of attacks on the Islamic Republic within a week, U.S. Central Command said early on Monday. Precision munitions were deployed against “dozens of targets at multiple locations” to degrade Tehran’s ability to disrupt international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, CENTCOM said. The targets included Iranian air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats, according to the statement. U.S. fighter aircraf...
(JNS) — Israel was scheduled to send a joint Foreign Ministry-Israel Defense Forces delegation to Venezuela on Tuesday to assist recovery efforts after powerful earthquakes there killed more than 1,700 people and left thousands homeless. The mission, ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, was approved following a National Security Council review to coordinate the Israeli agencies involved and address the diplomatic and logistical challenges of operating in a country that has had no formal rel...
(JNS) — The Gush Etzion Regional Council in Judea has signed an agreement with Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry that aims to provide assistance to local authorities that are at the center of international delegitimization and boycott campaigns, the ministry said on Thursday. Ministry director-general Avi Cohen-Scali, together with the ministry’s senior leadership, paid a visit to the Gush Etzion area south of Jerusalem on the previous day to hear about the many challenges facing area residents. The signing with...
(JNS) — Mass funeral ceremonies for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are set to begin on Saturday, July 4, more than four months after he was eliminated in the opening Israeli Air Force strikes of “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury,” regime outlets said. The multi-day funeral, which state media claimed is expected to draw up to 20 million mourners, will begin when Khamenei’s body will lie in state at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla Mosque. The ceremonies will continue through Monday with a funeral procession along a six-mile route, fo...
(JNS) — New York City politicians denounced a Nazi swastika that was carved into a parked car on the Upper East Side of Manhattan—reportedly a vehicle in which an Israeli flag was visible. Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City who has been accused of Jew-hatred frequently and whose wife has apologized for past social media activity, including apparently lauding the Oct. 7 attacks, stated that the “swastika carved into a car on the Upper East Side is a despicable act of antisemitism.” “It is a hateful attack of intimidation on our Jewish ne...
(JNS) — The Israel Antiquities Authority announced that it is joining an international, European Union-funded research project that will use artificial intelligence, chemical analysis and other advanced technologies to investigate one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls: where they were produced and copied. The five-year project, titled “Tracing Scribes and Scrolls,” has received a €2.5 million ($2.9 million) Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. It is led by Professor Mladen Popović of the Universi...
(JNS) - U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday urged people to "never forget" the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as the Jewish state marked 1,000 days since the Hamas-led massacre. "1000 days ago, Hamas monsters stormed out of Gaza & into Israel & massacred 1200 men, women & children-butchering them viciously taking 251 people hostage," Huckabee tweeted. "We should never forget the victims & should keep asking 'how did such a thing happen?'" the envoy added. Some 6,000...
(JNS) — Iran has no plans to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit nuclear sites targeted during the recent war, a spokesman for its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, a day after U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Tehran had agreed to do so. “We neither had a meeting with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, nor do we have any plans for the agency to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities that were damaged as a result of the military aggression by the United States and the Zionist regime,” spokesp...
(JNS) — More than 700 rabbis from across the United States have signed an open letter urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to apologize for referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as “monsters,” arguing that the rhetoric endangers American Jews. The appeal came as a new poll found that most Jewish New Yorkers believe the normalization of anti-Zionism is fueling antisemitism in the city. Among the signatories are 176 rabbis from New York, 96 from New Jersey, 76 from California and 53 from Florida, along with hundr...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 17 marked the death of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former leader of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty, who died in 1994 at the age of 92. “On the [Hebrew date of] 3rd of Tammuz, I miss the Rebbe of Lubavitch—a towering spiritual leader who saw in every Jew a mission, faith, and infinite strength,” Netanyahu tweeted. “The light in his eyes, his love for the people of Israel, and his call never to despair continue to illuminate our path to this day. I will always remember my moments w...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday sharply rebuked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after he accused “Zionism” of threatening Turkey’s survival, calling the Turkish leader a “dictator” who persecutes opponents and backs jihadist groups. In a post on X, the ministry said that Erdoğan, who “persecutes political opponents, imprisons journalists, massacres Kurds, occupies the territory of Cyprus and backs jihadist groups is now attacking the Middle East’s only democracy,” adding that Israel had “extended its hand in peace to Le...
(JNS) - Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, considered to be the father of the Kinetic Movement in modern art, died on Sunday at the age of 98, the Agam Museum announced. Agam, who was awarded the Israel Prize for Visual Arts in April, was known for works that incorporated movement, light, color and viewer interaction. A public memorial ceremony was held on Monday at the Agam Museum in the central city of Rishon Letzion, followed by the funeral, which was scheduled to depart from the plaza of the...
