Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Israel’s United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon on Thursday morning responded to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for a halt to IDF activity in Judea and Samaria. “Since Oct. 7, Iran has been working vigorously to introduce into Judea and Samaria sophisticated explosive devices that are intended to detonate in the centers of Israeli cities,” Danon tweeted. “The State of Israel cannot sit idly by and wait for the spectacle of buses and cafes exploding in city centers. The activity of the IDF forces in Judea and Samaria is...
(JTA) — The United States announced sanctions against a nonprofit that has received funding from the Israeli government as well as the civilian security chief of a West Bank settlement. The sanctions are the United States’ latest effort to curb extremism among settlers and come as violence in the West Bank has escalated. The nonprofit, Hashomer Yosh, was founded a decade ago with the stated mission of supporting and protecting farms in Israeli West Bank settlements. In its announcement of sanctions, the State Department accused the non...
(JNS) — According to Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli nonprofit organization that assists farmers and protects agricultural state land in Judea and Samaria, the sanctions the United States imposed against it on Wednesday are based on false information provided by left-wing groups. “We ask, why? And we have an answer,” Meir Bertler, the group’s foreign relations chief, told Israel’s Kan public broadcaster. “The answer isn’t about the activities of Hashomer, which are legal and legitimate and coordinated with the government. It is about false and dis...
(JTA) — The federal government will spend nearly $150 million more this year than it did in 2023 to secure religious organizations, a jump aimed at addressing a rise in antisemitism since Oct. 7. The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it had allocated $454.5 million this fiscal year toward the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which funds security enhancements at houses of worship and religious organizations. It is the largest sum ever allocated toward the program, and a significant increase from last year’s figure of $305...
Drone downed over southern Kinneret likely came from Syria (JNS) — Israeli air defenses on Monday morning intercepted a drone just south of the Sea of Galilee that appears to have penetrated the border from Syria to the east. The drone set off sirens in several towns in the southern Golan Heights area. The incident occurred well south of the areas usually targeted by Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to Israeli Army Radio, military officials believe the object was launched from Syria, a fairly rare occurrence. Hezbollah has rained thousands of p...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Wednesday that the major flare-up with Hezbollah earlier this week wasn't "the end of the story." During a tour of the country's northern border, Netanyahu said, "[On Sunday], we foiled a surprise attack by Hezbollah against the State of Israel. We destroyed thousands of intermediate-range rockets that were aimed at the Galilee and the Golan Heights. We thwarted all of the drones that were directed against the State of Israel, at the Galilee and the center of the country, and they...
(JNS) - Nearly 30,000 new immigrants have arrived in Israel since the Oct. 7 massacre, according to figures released Tuesday by the World Zionist Organization. The wave of aliyah coincides with the nearly 11-month war against Hamas in Gaza and a surge in global antisemitism, including in North America. The war began when thousands of Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, slaughtering 1,200 people and abducting another 250. Of these, 109 still remain captive in the Strip. "On Oct. 7, a war erupted not against the state of Israel but agai...
(JTA) — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who injected outlandish comments about Jews into the national dialogue and also vocally supported Israel, suspended his campaign Friday and said he would support Donald Trump. Kennedy, who had previously run in the Democratic party and had gained attention in recent years as an anti-vaccine activist, dropped his bid Friday during an extended press conference in Phoenix, shortly before a scheduled Trump rally nearby. Kennedy’s long-shot campaign was defined by eye-popping per...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The Israeli American Council unveiled its “Hostage Square” exhibit on Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, drawing attention to Israeli captives held by Hamas. The political event has been marked by large pro-Palestinian demonstrations. An IAC spokesperson confirmed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the exhibit is situated on private property near the United Center, where the convention is taking place until Aug. 22. By choosing a private lot, the organization bypassed the need for a city permi...
(JTA) — Israel bombed hundreds of sites inside Lebanon and Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into Israel early Sunday in a sharp flare of hostilities at Israel’s northern border. Hezbollah has said for weeks that it is planning a significant attack within Israel in response to Israel’s killing in Beirut last month of Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah commander. Israeli military leaders said they had determined that an attack was imminent and struck against Hezbollah’s rocket launchers in a bid to prevent or blunt the damage. They said that a fleet o...
Dr. Kenneth Hanson has just released a powerful documentary about the Oct. 7 massacre of 1200 innocent Jewish men, women and children in the northwestern Negev. The video, titled "October Shadows: Denying the Day of Despair," brings attention to what exactly happened on that fateful day and covers the almost immediate denial of the evil acts committed by Hamas and Gazan citizens. "... while Oct. 7 is a different kind of Holocaust than what transpired during the dark years of World War II, the denial is the same animal," said Hanson. While...
Participants are in for two very special treats in the Jewish Pavilion Senior Services online auction fundraiser this year. Not only can participants bid on the usual amazing range of items from restaurant gift cards to theme park tickets to unique experiences, but this year’s auction will also feature nearly 75 brand-new, couture fashion items such as purses and shoes donated by a wealthy benefactor in New York City. Even better, everyone who registers for the auction has the chance to win a $500 Visa gift card courtesy of Cornerstone H...
(JTA) — CHICAGO — The Democratic National Convention is denying a speaking spot to a group of pro-Palestinian delegates, a decision it confirmed after the parents of an Israeli-American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, delivered an address that brought the convention to a standstill. The delegation of activists belongs to “Uncommitted,” the movement that calls for an end to the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They protested the decision by staging a sit-in outside the convention center that lasted into...
(JNS) — Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday in a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that anti-Israel protesters “have a point.” “Those protesters out on the street. They have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides,” the 81-year-old president told the United Center crowd on the first night of the convention after being introduced by First Lady Jill Biden and their daughter, Ashley Biden. Four demonstrators were arrested after anti-Israel protesters breached an outer fence lin...
(JNS) — In a JNS/Direct Polls survey of Israelis conducted on Aug. 19 regarding their view of the presidential race that pits Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump, Harris enjoys the support of 28 percent of Israelis to Trump’s 64 percent, with 9 percent of Israelis professing to have no opinion. In a JNS/Direct Polls survey of Israelis carried out on July 9, 34 percent of respondents supported Biden to 55 percent for Donald Trump and 11 percent had no opinion. In this week’s poll, Harris has virtually no support am...
(JNS) — The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who has eluded Israeli crosshairs since Oct. 7, is making it a precondition to a ceasefire and hostage release deal that Israel spare his life, according to reporting in Asharq al-Awsat, an Arabic publication in London. Israel media reported, citing Egyptian officials who spoke anonymously with Asharq al-Awsat and other Arabic media, that Cario presented a stipulation to U.S. counterparts on behalf of the Oct. 7 terror attack mastermind. “Should a deal be struck alongside the return of hostages, ‘Si...
(JNS) — Former Hamas hostage Noa Argamani met with top global diplomats on Wednesday to raise the plight of the 109 captives still being held by the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip. “Every night I was falling asleep and thinking, this may be the last night of my life,” the 26-year-old told senior diplomats from G7 countries in Tokyo. “And until the moment I was [rescued] … I just did not believe that I’m still surviving,” she added. “And in this moment that I’m … sitting with you, it’s a miracle that I’m here,” she said. Argamani, Shlomi Zi...
(JNS) - MAGHAR, Israel - After seven months fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza with his elite military reserve unit, 32-year-old Eyal Ghanam is now heading to the country's volatile northern border for a two-month stint. For Ghanam, a member of Israel's small and strongly patriotic Druze community, military service runs deep in the family; his father's 25-year Israel Defense Forces career saw him rise to become infantry brigade commander of the northern Gaza Strip before Israel's unilateral pullout from the coastal territory two decades ago. He...
(JNS) — During Barack Obama’s presidency, Thomas Nides attended foreign policy meetings as U.S. deputy secretary of state for management and resources. Just as he saw Obama include Joe Biden, then the vice president, Nides has seen President Biden consult with Vice President Kamala Harris. “I sat in the Situation Room for hundreds of meetings with President Obama and the vice president, and the vice president was included on almost every major foreign policy decision,” Nides told JNS on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convent...
(JNS) - The secrets of the Jewish kitchen dating back two millennia to the time of the Biblical Second Temple are being uncovered in Jerusalem's ancient drainage channel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. Items such as expensive oils, grape seeds and 2,000-year-old eggshells were unearthed during an excavation-outside the Old City walls-in the drainage channel that ran under Jerusalem's main street during the Second Temple period. The ancient drainage channel ran under the colorful markets of Jerusalem at the foot of the...
(JNS) — As tensions between Israel and Iran escalate, a group of American military veterans is preparing to evacuate U.S. citizens from the region for the second time since Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught on southwestern Israel. “Our ambition is for every American who travels to know that Project DYNAMO is there to help them if the need were to arise,” Mario Duarte, president and CEO of the Florida-based organization, told JNS on Sunday. Project DYNAMO was created in 2021, as the United States pulled forces out of Afghanistan. After the withdrawal, th...
(JNS) — HAIFA—The rows of hospital beds with adjacent oxygen units line the underground parking lot. Four operating rooms, a maternity ward and a dialysis center are among the facilities that Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus, aka Rambam Medical Center, has set up three levels down in its parking garage. The largest hospital in northern Israel has created the biggest underground hospital in the world, and is gearing up for what could be an all-out war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The three-floor, $140 million Sammy Ofer Fortified Under...
(JNS) — Iranian officials are signaling this week that an attack on Israel may not be imminent, nearly a month after the targeted killing in Tehran of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh. Despite Jerusalem not claiming responsibility, the Islamic Republic vowed to avenge the assassination on its soil with a strong response against Israel. However, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Tehran is tamping down its urgent rhetoric. Examples of this potentially different approach cited by the newspaper include a Wednesday statement by t...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Bullet fragments were discovered in at least some of the corpses of six Israeli hostages retrieved from Khan Yunis in Gaza last week, according to information shared with their families. This finding lends credence to the theory that some hostages were killed by their captors shortly before an aerial assault that preceded Monday’s IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) rescue operation. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called it a “daring and dangerous operation in the Hamas tunnels in Khan Yunis.” Haim Peri, Y...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces recovered the bodies of six hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 and murdered in captivity from a tunnel in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning. In an operation involving the IDF and Israel Security Agency, the bodies of Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popwell, Yagev Buchstat, Alex Dancyg and Haim Perry were located after over 10 months in captivity. The total number of hostages remaining in the hands of Hamas in Gaza now stands at 109. Munder, 79, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz along w...
