Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Nine months old. The smiling red-haired baby had recently started to crawl after rocking on all fours. Kfir Bibas lived with his parents and 4-year-old brother in a kibbutz in southern Israel. On Oct. 7, their lives were changed forever as the family-mom Shiri, dad Yarden, and the two kids-was abducted by Hamas to Gaza when the Islamist terrorists overran the area and went on a murderous rampage. At nine months old, Kfir is the youngest of the roughly 240 hostages-including 32...
MADRID (JTA) — In a landmark acknowledgment, the parliament of Spain’s Balearic Islands issued an official recognition of the “marginalization and discrimination” endured by the islands’ chuetas, or local Crypto-Jews from Majorca. In a statement, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain group welcomed the news in mid-September and asked for chueta history to be taught in local schools. Today, most chuetas on Majorca talk openly and proudly about their Jewish heritage, marking a significant change after a history of humiliation, fear and...
(JTA) — Four hours after Tuesday’s historic pro-Israel march in Washington, D.C., ended, Jennie Levy had expected to be touching down back in Detroit, after a long but fulfilling day standing shoulder to shoulder with Jews from around the country in support of Israel. Instead, her delegation of 900, organized by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, was hungry, disappointed and nowhere close to home. Many members had missed most if not all of the rally because of what the federation said was a “malicious walk-off of drivers” hired t...
(JNS) — Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza continue to find Hamas terrorist infrastructure located within civilian sites, including at Al-Quds University and the Abu Bakr Mosque, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday. Israeli forces uncovered a section of the mosque housing a large number of explosive devices and flammable materials, according to the IDF. Soldiers also confiscated dozens of weapons, military equipment and Hamas operational plans. IDF troops also found a “large number of weapons” inside the children’s room of the home of...
(JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court upheld an earlier ruling that the non-Jewish widows of the children and grandchildren of Jews may emigrate to Israel under its Law of Return. The 4-3 ruling this week was an example of the court’s role in determining Israeli policy, a capacity that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had sought for months to diminish prior to the outbreak of Israel’s war with Hamas on Oct. 7. Critics of the judicial overhaul contended that sapping the judiciary of its power endangered Israeli democracy. The ruling is...
(JNS) — When organized crime wants to hide profits from their criminal enterprises, they launder it through seemingly legitimate business, and after a step or two, the money is clean. Unfortunately, CNN is trying the same trick with casualty figures from Gaza. Here’s their problem: Many people are justifiably skeptical about any claims by Hamas—after all, if it is willing to engage in barbaric mass murder, lying doesn’t seem like that big a leap. So what to do about Hamas-reported deaths in the Gaza fighting triggered by Hamas’s mass slaughter...
Hamas planned ‘second phase’ for Oct. 7 massacre (JNS) — A planned second phase of Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel involved joining forces with terrorists in Judea and Samaria, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing Western and Middle Eastern security officials briefed on evidence obtained by Israel. Some of the Hamas terrorists that participated in the attack carried enough food, ammunition and equipment for several days, the officials said, and had instructions to continue deeper into the Jewish state once the ini...
(JNS) — U.S. officials have quietly suggested ways Israel could reduce civilian casualties in its campaign to eradicate Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including using smaller munitions. During his second Middle East visit in less than a month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday about “concrete steps that can and should be taken” to minimize civilian deaths. Blinken didn’t go into detail about what those steps would be. State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller also wouldn...
(New York Jewish Week) — A Cornell University junior has been arrested in connection with threats to kill Jewish students at the school, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday. Patrick Dai, 21, from Pittsford, New York, is being charged with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications, a federal charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He is due in court on Wednesday. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced that a person had been taken into custody on Tuesday as her office unveiled a ser...
By Luke Tress (JTA) — International news outlets denied that they had advance knowledge of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, after a report suggested without hard evidence that their photographers may have coordinated with the terror group ahead of the invasion. But the Associated Press and CNN have said they will no longer work with one of the photographers named in the report, Hassan Eslaiah. The other publications named in the report are Reuters and The New York Times. The report, by pro-Israel media watchdog Honest Reporting, said fre...
(JNS) — Israel Air Force fighter jets struck the home of Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip overnight Nov. 15 as Israeli forces continued their operations in the enclave. The residence “was used as terrorist infrastructure and often served as a meeting point for Hamas’s senior leaders to direct terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the army said. Haniyeh resides in Qatar, where he has an office under the protection of the Gulf country’s government. Haniyeh is worth an estimated $4 billion and has homes...
(JNS) - Israeli forces continue to battle Hamas terrorists deep inside the Palestinian enclave. A humanitarian corridor for Gazan The IDF on Tuesday again opened a humanitarian corridor for Gazan civilians to evacuate to the safe zone south across the Wadi Gaza. It is the fourth consecutive day that Israeli troops have facilitated the movement of Gazans from the north, despite coming under attack by Hamas terrorists. Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces' Arabic-language spokesman,...
(JNS) — In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the subsequent onslaught of antisemitism, Christians have an opportunity to write a new chapter in their history; one in which they show up as allies and friends of the Jews. Thousands of Christians around the world are doing just that. The long and painful history of Jewish-Christian relations has seen few heroes and many moral failures. Both Protestantism and Catholicism, at different moments in their history, adopted antisemitism as doctrine. One famous example was Pope Paul IV’s Cum...
(JTA) — It was one of the few questions that united all five candidates at what was a no-holds-barred Republican primary debate: What would they advise Israel’s prime minister as he wages war against Hamas? The uniform answer: Finish them. Israel and antisemitism featured large in the latest GOP primary debate in Miami on Wednesday, in part because a cosponsor of the debate was the Republican Jewish Coalition, which got to ask two questions, a first for a Jewish group. But they would have been asked even without the RJC’s influence, becau...
(JNS) - Israeli soldiers prayed at a sixth-century synagogue in Gaza on Tuesday for the first time in decades. In recent days troops entered Gaza City, where the headquarters of Hamas is located, as they pursue their mission to dismantle the terrorist organization after the Oct. 7 massacre of 1,400 persons in Israel, nearly all civilians. There is a synagogue in the Rimal neighborhood built in 508 C.E., during the Byzantine period. A mosaic featuring King David with a lyre and his name...
In the wake of recent events in Israel, the Jewish community and others in South Florida have joined forces to support the soldiers and individuals thousands of miles away. Meir Shemtov, a member of Chabad of Southwest Broward, has been one of the main organizers collecting supplies for his shul. He finds soldiers — typically Israeli American reservists — before they go to Israel and lists things they need. He then turns to the other shul members and asks for donations. He helps fill up duffel bags of protein bars, flashlights, gauze pads and...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives censured Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the Palestinian American Democrat, for her rhetoric in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, including using the term “from the river to the sea.” The 234-188 vote late Tuesday night saw 22 Democrats vote to censure Tlaib, and was sure to sharpen divides among Democrats over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Some Democrats vehemently defended Tlaib’s right to free speech and others said the “From the river to the sea” term signifies the elimination...
(JTA) — Brandeis University is revoking recognition of the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, saying the group “openly supports Hamas.” Brandeis informed the student group on Monday about its decision, which means that the group will no longer receive university funding or be able to hold activities on campus. The group canceled a “Vigil for Palestine” that had been scheduled for Monday night as a result. “This decision was not made lightly, as Brandeis is dedicated to upholding free speech principles,” the university wr...
(JNS) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced his intention on Monday to pursue a $1 billion surge in funding for the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps bolster security for synagogues, day schools and other at-risk locations. The legislation would more than triple the existing $305 million in annual funds available for the program, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency administers. Speaking at a press conference, Schumer said that that level of funding was necessary in response to the spike in a...
(JNS) — Germany on Thursday announced a complete ban on Hamas activities in the country. Already designated a terror organization in the Germany, Berlin moved to ban its activities following the Oct. 7 massacre of 1,400 Israelis. “With Hamas, I have today completely banned the activities of a terrorist organization whose aim is to destroy the State of Israel,” said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. The German wing of Samidoun, a Palestinian organization with close ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces saw some 50,000 Gazan civilians move from northern to southern Gaza on Wednesday via an Israeli evacuation corridor, a military spokesman said, adding that these are people who refuse to comply with Hamas's demand that they serve as human shields in the current confrontation. IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said: "They understand that Hamas lost control of northern Gaza; in the south, there are safer areas where water food and medicine arrive. We will...
(JUSTTHENEWS) — Even as President Joe Biden touts his support for Israel, many of his appointees have expressed anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiments, even after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and killed more than 1,400 people, including at least 31 U.S. citizens. “Biden has appointed the most antisemitic, anti-Israel people to important posts we’ve ever seen,” Zionist Organization of America National President Morton Klein told Just the News. ZOA has identified dozens of current and former Biden administration officials with a history of ant...
(JNS) — Israel forces captured a Hamas stronghold in western Jabaliya after 10 hours of fighting, the IDF said on Thursday. Troops from the 933rd Nahal Infantry Brigade battled Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists both above and below ground at the site in northern Gaza, known as Outpost 17. “The troops completed the takeover of the outpost after 10 hours of fighting, during which they eliminated terrorists, captured many weapons and uncovered terrorist tunnel shafts, including a shaft located near a kindergarten and leading to an...
(JNS) — Judea and Samaria leaders sharply criticized the Biden administration on Monday following a report that it had barred a shipment of rifles from going to Israeli civilian volunteer defense forces. The New York Times reported on Sunday that U.S. State Department officials had received “assurances” from Jerusalem that 24,000 M-16 rifles to be purchased from the United States by Israel would only go to uniformed police officers. Many Israeli towns and villages, particularly in Judea and Samaria, have armed volunteer defense forces, calle...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces is intensifying its maneuvers in Gaza City against Hamas, military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated on Nov. 6, adding that the growing number of Hamas terrorists and field commanders being eliminated is creating pressure on the terrorist army that rules the enclave. Addressing IDF efforts to demolish the underground terror tunnel network dubbed "the metro," Hagari said that Hamas, which deliberately places tunnel shafts under hospitals, mosques, schools...
