Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Israel’s minister for the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience, said Sunday that security agencies had identified attempts by Hezbollah to gain a foothold in Upper Galilee city of Kiryat Shmona through apartment purchases by Arab citizens of the Jewish state. “Hezbollah used Israeli Arabs to purchase apartments in Kiryat Shmona during the war in order to try to take control of the city from within,” the minister said behind closed doors at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, according to Hebrew media reports....
(JNS) — A landmark natural gas deal with Israel is a “strictly commercial” arrangement with no political dimensions, Egypt said on Thursday. The Egyptian government reaction, which came the day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the $34 billion, 15-year agreement—the biggest gas sale in Israel’s history—is seen as Cairo’s attempt to shield itself from Arab criticism over the mammoth agreement with the Jewish state. “The deal is a purely commercial transaction concluded exclusively on the basis of economic and investment...
(JNS) — It feels necessary, due to political pressure, to accuse the Jewish state publicly of committing “genocide” in Gaza even though that charge is untrue, a New England legislator told JNS on background. “I don’t think that ‘genocide’ is a term that can be used in the moment, in the fog of war,” the legislator told JNS. But there has been “so much mounting pressure” after lawmakers in the legislator’s state began accusing Israel of “genocide,” the lawmaker said. “Nobody was going to engage with me, or even talk to me, or not just throw me i...
(JNS) — David Cunio, one of the Israelis abducted by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, gives a harrowing account of his nearly two years in Hamas captivity in Gaza, describing starvation, psychological torment, underground imprisonment and the struggle to survive for the sake of his family. In an interview aired on Channel 12, Cunio detailed his abduction alongside his wife, Sharon, their twin daughters Yuli and Emma, and other family members, as well as the brutal conditions he endured during 738 days in Hamas captivity. The ordeal began in t...
(JNS) — Former hostage Moran Stella Yanai called out U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, claiming he was not interested in hearing her claims of sexual violence while in Hamas captivity. Yanai was selling jewelry at the Nova Music Festival when she was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the group’s invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. She was held for 54 days before her release as part of a ceasefire. Yanai told Israel’s Channel 12 that she and fellow hostage Nili Margalit, a nurse taken from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and re...
(JNS) — Canadian authorities detained Israeli comedian Guy Hochman for six hours at Toronto’s main airport after an anti-Israel organization filed war crimes charges against him in connection with his service in the Israel Defense Forces, Hochman said on Tuesday. “They tried to stop me from entering Canada, but after 6 hours of being detained, I got in. They tried to prevent me from performing in front of the Israeli community, I performed. And while they kept shouting ‘free Palestine’ to themselves in minus 10 degrees, we warmed up with laught...
7% tariff on all countries doing business with Iran, Trump says (JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday evening that effective immediately, any country that does business with the Iranian regime will be subject to a 25% tariff “on any and all business being done with the United States of America.” “This order is final and conclusive,” Trump said. Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina governor, wrote that it was a “strong move by President Trump.” Jewish charter school pursues Oklah...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that there would be no Turkish or Qatari troops deployed to Gaza as part of Phase 2 of the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan. Speaking at a Knesset debate on “violence and crime in the Arab sector” within Israel, Netanyahu acknowledged the dispute between his government and the Trump administration over the post-war management of Gaza. “We have a certain argument with our friends in the United States over the composition of the executive board that will oversee the proce...
(JNS) - As of Jan. 13, 2,000 protesters have been confirmed killed, according to Iranian authorities, however, other reports claim different figures. Time of Israel reported that The Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights said it had confirmed 648 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely much higher - "according to some estimates, more than 6,000." Also, Times of Israel reported that the Iran International news site, which is based in...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that anti-regime protests in Iran could be approaching a critical moment, with the Iranian people poised to “take their fate into their own hands.” “We in Israel identify with the struggle of the Iranian people and their aspiration to liberty and justice,” Netanyahu said, speaking at a 40-signature debate, which the opposition can call once a month and which the prime minister is obliged to attend. “We may be at a critical moment,” he said. The premier stressed in his remarks t...
(JNS) — It takes Wikipedia nearly 7,500 words into its main entry on China to mention the word “genocide,” tucked in a section on “sociopolitical issues and human rights,” and even then, the crowdsourced online encyclopedia hedges. “Since 2017, the Chinese government has been engaged in a harsh crackdown in Xinjiang, with around one million Uyghurs and other ethnic and religion minorities being detained in internment camps aimed at changing the political thinking of detainees, their identities and their religious beliefs, in what some described...
(JNS) — Madrid is prepared to send peacekeeping troops to the Gaza Strip “once the opportunity presents itself, “Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Thursday. “Of course, we have not forgotten Palestine and the Gaza Strip,” Sánchez told a gathering of Spanish ambassadors in Madrid, El País reported. “Spain must actively participate in rebuilding hope in Palestine,” he added. “I will propose to parliament, when the opportunity presents itself, that we send peacekeeping troops to Palestine, once we can see how to advance this task...
(JNS) — The Jewish community in Pasadena, Calif., is experiencing a “mix of emotion” as the one-year anniversary approaches of the Eaton Fire, which broke out on Jan. 7, 2025, and killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 structures, including the more than 100-year-old Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center. Melissa Levy, executive director of the Conservative synagogue, told JNS that the community is feeling “resilient and hopeful but also still in a period of mourning.” “It’s a mix of emotion,” she said. “We’re mourning the loss of this re...
(JNS) — Imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti should be put to death over his leading role in the 2000-05 Second Intifada terrorist war against Israel, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said. “Marwan Barghouti should be taken out,” Ben-Gvir declared at a faction meeting of his Otzma Yehudit Party at the Knesset in Jerusalem, responding to a question from JNS about a petition by Alon Liel, a Reichman University lecturer and former Israeli diplomat, calling for the terrorist’s release. “Marwan Barghouti is a murderer, he is a terrori...
(JNS) — Just as countries must have borders to exist, the conservative movement needs to delineate what is beyond the pale, and the latter includes Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who has both denounced core conservative tenets of late and given voice to and failed to denounce antisemites and Holocaust deniers. That was one of the messages Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative commentator and Daily Wire cofounder, shared in a Dec. 17 book talk with Kevin Roberts, president of Heritage Foundation. Roberts has drawn criticism after f...
(JNS) - Eva Schloss-Geiringer, who was adopted as a child survivor of the Holocaust by the father of Anne Frank, has died in London at the age of 96, the Anne Frank Foundation announced Monday. Otto Frank adopted Schloss-Geiringer, who had lived with her family near the Franks in Amsterdam before its occupation by the Nazis in 1940, after marrying her mother, Fritzi, in 1953. Schloss-Geiringer wrote books about her survival of the Holocaust, including "Eva's Story: A Survivor's Tale," and has...
(JNS) - More than 250 people gathered in Herzliya on Dec. 30, 2025, for "Stronger Together: An Evening of Courage, Compassion and Community" hosted by Telfed, an aliyah organization based in Ra'anana that supports immigrants from Southern Africa. The event brought together an extraordinary cross-section of speakers-all with ties to Southern Africa-who shared their personal stories of tragedy and triumph, heroism and hope in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks. Opening...
(JNS) — Representatives from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey met Friday in Miami to review implementation of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and to advance preparations for the next stage, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff confirmed on Saturday. Witkoff said the initial phase of the Trump administration-brokered deal had produced progress, including the return of all but one hostage, partial IDF troop withdrawals, a reduction in hostilities and expanded humanitarian assistance to Gaza. “In our discussions reg...
Possible regime change? The meeting this week between Netanyahu and Trump takes place as there are growing domestic protests against the Iranian regime. There is also a possibility that Israel’s Mossad may be involved in subversive efforts to bolster the opposition and convince Iran’s public to rise up against the fanatical clerics that have steered the country from a path of moderation, into a pariah state ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79. Trump acknowledged the protests but didn’t want to get into specifics of whether the regim...
(JNS) — The longtime Chabad House in Nepal, in the capital of Kathmandu, has been forced to relocate amid growing pressure from its landlord, who demanded that the Jewish center remove all Hebrew signs, Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz said on Sunday. The Chabad House, which serves thousands of Israeli and other Jewish travelers each year, has been in place at the site for the last two decades. “We came under a lot of pressure from the landlord, who started by demanding about a month and a half ago that we remove any Hebrew sign or signs connected to Jud...
BBC to pay Israeli family for filming their home after Oct. 7 By JNS Staff (JNS) — The BBC has apologized and agreed to pay a little over $37,000 to an Israeli family as part of a settlement for filming inside their home shortly after Hamas terrorists invaded it on Oct. 7, 2023, The Jewish News of London reported on Friday. The settlement was on legal action by the Horenstein family in Nativ HaAsara near the border with Gaza over the actions of BBC senior correspondent Jeremy Bowen and his film crew several days after the Oct. 7 massacre, a...
(JNS) — Israeli National Security Committee chairman Knesset member Zvika Fogel and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both of the Otzma Yehudit Party, are advancing a Knesset bill aimed at tightening enforcement against noise from public address systems used in mosques. Under the proposed legislation, the construction or operation of a public address system for calls to prayer would require a permit. Permit applications would be reviewed based on noise intensity, efforts at noise-reduction, the mosque’s location and the imp...
Part I (JNS) - In a pre-New Year's meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump demonstrated that when it comes to U.S.-Israel relations, there is little daylight and total admiration between the two allies. This holds particularly true regarding the nations' policies toward Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, in particular. Key differences remain. The meeting could not have come at a more important juncture for Israel. Phase 1 of a three-month-old ceas...
After his visit with President Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with approximately 30 Christian leaders in Orlando on Dec. 31 and followed with a visit to Jewish leaders in Miami. His visit with Christians was formal, almost like a board meeting - men in suits seated at tables. His later visit with the Jewish community was much more informal, like a family-gathering setting. Netanyahu's talk with Christians was warm and inspiring. "You are representatives of the...
(JNS) — At U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confronted what seemed to be an impossible mission. The international stage has shifted: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has exited the spotlight, while Netanyahu was invited to take part in the grand design of world peace envisioned by the American leader—a vision not without complications. From Israel’s point of view, Trump’s statement that he would “absolutely” support additional Israeli strikes on Iranian missile and nuclear facil...
