Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee urged Americans to recognize Israel's biblical heritage as a foundation of the United States, speaking at the opening of an international archaeology conference at the Herodium site in Judea and Samaria. He said it is his job "to represent the importance of Israel to the United States," adding that "without Israel, without the Jewish foundation, there would not be an America. We owe our very existence to what happened in this land." The remarks wer...
(JNS) — The Islamic Republic of Iran must rein in its terrorist proxies in Lebanon, U.S. President Donald Trump insisted on Sunday, without naming Hezbollah. “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization is a “malignant cancer,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said earlier on Sunday, notin...
(JNS) — Jeb Bush, chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran, and the group’s CEO Mark D. Wallace stated on Thursday that the organization cannot endorse the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding “in its current form.” In a statement released after the Wednesday night signing of the agreement at the Palace of Versailles in France, Bush and Wallace praised U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran, noting that the Islamic Republic is “no longer on the cusp of a nuclear weapon.” “The American and Israeli militaries have neutralized the Irani...
(JNS) — The Islamic Republic won the “2026 Iran War,” according to the Wikipedia page for the conflict. But when the crowd-sourced encyclopedia, which has a documented history of anti-Israel and antisemitic entries, cites news reports in a footnote ostensibly to support the claim that Iran won, it draws reader attention to sources that state that Iran wasn’t decimated or emerged in a better position in some ways. Not that it won. “So, who actually won?” states an Indian Express article, which is the first reference in the Wikipedia footnote. “T...
(JNS) — The Israel Football Association said on Tuesday it would welcome a proposed symbolic match against a Palestinian team, following reports that FIFA is considering the fixture as the opening game of a new under-15 tournament in the United States in September. “The initiative is known to us and is welcomed,” the association said in a statement to JNS, adding that chairman Shino Zoaretz has consistently supported using soccer to promote “reconciliation, normalization and peace.” The association said it would agree to a meeting “at any p...
(JNS) — Keir Starmer on Monday resigned as Britain’s prime minister and leader of the U.K. Labour Party, seven weeks after suffering a defeat in the May 7 local elections. Speaking outside 10 Downing Street on Monday morning, Starmer says he spoke to King Charles III and informed him of his decision to resign, the BBC reported. Starmer said the Labour Party asked him whether he was best placed to lead it into the next general election. He said he “heard the answer” to that question and “accepts that answer with good grace”. The outgoing premier...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Thursday that he would be cutting ties with the office of E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas “until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state.” Kallas “has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel,” Sa’ar tweeted, responding to reports that the European official, during a closed-door meeting, likened Jerusalem’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa u...
(JNS) - National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Friday called for a dramatically intensified Israeli military response against Lebanon following a Hezbollah drone attack that killed four IDF soldiers in Southern Lebanon. "For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn," Ben-Gvir posted on X. The remarks came hours after the military announced that four IDF soldiers, including Lt. Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, commander of the 52nd...
Canada's Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg is embroiled in controversy over plans to open a major exhibit titled "Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present" on June 27. The controversy exists on multiple fronts including that the exhibit is not actually historically accurate, does not meet Canada's own standards and yet it is federally funded, that it is one-sided and risks inciting antisemitism, and undermines the museum's own mandate. Rev. Don James is the CEO of Bridges for Peace Canada....
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States would resume military strikes against Iran if Tehran violates a memorandum of understanding intended to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Speaking on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, Trump said the agreement must permanently block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon but warned of military consequences if it fails. “When I say permanently, it should be permanently. But if...
(JNS) - Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) drew on the recent New York Knicks NBA finals win in his opening statement during his second televised debate with former city comptroller Brad Lander, who is running to unseat him in New York's 10th Congressional District. "We cannot afford to put a rookie in the game," he said. "We have to put our best players on the court." He referred often to Lander's lack of federal government experience as his opponent being a "rookie." Both men are Jewish. Lander has...
London appeals court rules Palestine Action ban legal By JNS Staff (JNS) — The British government’s decision to ban the Palestine Action group under counter-terrorism legislation was lawful, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in London ruled on Monday. The Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling issued in February that found the ban unlawfully interfered with freedom of expression. Palestine Action remained proscribed pending the government’s appeal. Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr said the organization’s behavior was not that of a...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords showed there is “genuine respect” for the Jewish state across the region, Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said on Tuesday. Defrin opened his remarks to the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem by telling attendees he wanted to share “something more personal: my perspective on where we are today and why, after everything we’ve witnessed, I am very optimistic.” “Israel is a small country, living in a very difficult neighborhood,” he said. “As Israelis, we...
(JNS) - OFAKIM, Israel-Hidden among the bushes in a southern Israel grove, a young Bedouin busboy and a resident from Kibbutz Be'eri lay quietly for seven hours, afraid to speak as they hid for their lives. They had fled the Hamas-led massacre at the hard-hit kibbutz, less than three miles from Gaza, on Oct. 7, 2023, and were sheltering from terrorists in the thicket as rockets, bullets and explosions whizzed above their heads. Two years later, Hisham Alkarnawi - the Muslim worker from the...
(JNS) - The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund Board of Directors approved a budget of four million shekels (~$1.3 million) to upgrade the Nova Memorial Site and the Iron Swords Forest in Israel's northwestern Negev, the organization said on Thursday. Both sites have become national memorial spaces in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Nova Memorial Site alone attracting more than a quarter of a million visitors during the first four months of 2026, according...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the peace deal with the Iranian regime had been completed. “I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the U.S. Naval blockade,” the president stated just before 5:30 p.m. in Washington. “Ships of the world, start your engines. Let the oil flow.” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government has served as a key mediator, wrote on X that the United States and Iran had reached a peace d...
(JNS) — Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Monday morning that the memorandum of understanding reached overnight by Washington and Tehran does not bind the Jewish state. “Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation,” he tweeted in Hebrew. The Israeli government’s duty is to its citizens, its soldiers and the Jewish people, he said. “Every time we succumbed to international pressure at the expense of Israel’s security, we paid in blood with interest. It was true in the Oslo...
More than 150 guests gathered at Grand Living Park at Lake Mary on Wednesday, June 10, for the annual Jewish Pavilion Senior Services Cocktail Party, enjoying an evening filled with delicious food, refreshing drinks, live music, networking, and philanthropy. The event brought together community leaders, business professionals, supporters, volunteers, and friends of Jewish Pavilion Senior Services. Guests mingled throughout the beautiful senior living community while enjoying an impressive...
Chabad has announced a four-session course, Sinai and Civics: How Jewish Values Helped Shape America's Founding Ideals, beginning the end of June, 2026. The program is offered through the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. On July 4, 2026, the United States turns 250. Most Americans will celebrate. Fewer will know that when Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams were appointed to design the first national seal in 1776, they proposed an image of Moses parting the Red Sea, with the...
(JNS) — Israel is not at war with Lebanon but with Iranian proxy Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Wednesday in a video message to the Lebanese people. “Do you remember what Lebanon was like before Iran and Hezbollah turned it into a nightmare?” he asked. “Remember the cafés? Remember the culture? Remember the calm? All that’s gone because Hezbollah and Iran want to drag us into war over and over and over again. You deserve better. Your children deserve better,” he said. “You know by now that Israel will do what...
(JNS) — While overall congressional travel abroad has fallen sharply this year, Israel remains the top destination for lawmakers taking privately sponsored overseas trips, according to data compiled by the LegiStorm tracking platform. More than one-quarter of the roughly $1.62 million spent on privately funded congressional travel through April went toward trips to Israel, the report found. The total reflects 14 trips sponsored by organizations including the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, the J Street Education Fund a...
Hollywood star Natalie Portman added her voice to the many critics of film directors set to attend a French festival next month who pressured an Israeli colleague to drop out of the event. Portman, who is Jewish and was born in Israel, addressed the issue in an op-ed that Le Monde published on Tuesday, and which she co-authored with several French film industry figures, including French directors Justine Triet and Jacques Audiard. In it, they criticized the open letter from last week of several directors from Arab countries, who said they...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that an agreement with Iran would allow it to enrich uranium at low levels that “could never be used for military purposes.” “They can never go beyond a certain amount,” he said in a phone call with The New York Times. The report suggested that the deal could include a 15–20-year period of “suspension,” but it was unclear whether this would involve a total ban on enrichment. When asked whether the limit would match the 3.67 percent cap set under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,...
The Unites States military on Wednesday completed another round of airstrikes against a series of Iranian regime targets, CENTCOM announced. “The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression,” United States Central Command said. “U.S. forces remain vigilant, lethal and ready.” The latest attacks targeted military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defense sites across the Islamic Republic, according to the statement. “U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy assets fired precision munitions o...
In an historic medical breakthrough, doctors in Israel's Clalit Health Services -Schneider Children's Medical Center, became the first in the world to treat a baby born with a fatal genetic brain disorder by injecting a healthy gene directly into his brain, in a pioneering effort that united an Israeli physician, an Arab scientist and the Israeli-born CEO of an American biotech company in a race to save the life of an eight-month-old ultra-Orthodox infant. The treatment was performed at...
