Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 1177
(JNS) — Ayelet Samerano, whose 21-year-old son Yonatan Samerano was shot by Hamas terrorists and abducted by a UNRWA social worker on Oct. 7, 2023, is relieved that her desperate calls for action are finally being answered. “Today we’re seeing the results of our hard work,” she told JNS, after the Knesset passed two laws on Monday that make it illegal for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to operate on Israeli soil, and for Israeli officials to work with the U.N. agency. Sameran...
(JNS) — American Airlines has announced that it is suspending service to and from Tel Aviv through the end of next summer. The move, which was reported by Israeli travel agencies on Sunday, means AA’s daily non-stop service from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Tel Aviv will not resume until September 2025 at the earliest. “To provide customers with certainty when planning travel to Tel Aviv, we are expanding our travel alert to allow customers whose travel plans are impacted to rebook their itinerary for travel involvi...
(JNS) — Iran’s supreme leader has instructed the country’s Supreme National Security Council to prepare for another assault on Israel, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The report, which cited three Iranian officials with knowledge of the matter, said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the decision on Monday after reviewing a report from senior military commanders on the extent of damage to Iran’s missile production capabilities and air defense systems around Tehran, critical energy infrastructure and a main port in the south. Khamenei was sai...
(JNS) — White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday that Iran should not respond to Israel’s Oct. 26 retaliatory strikes. Should it choose to do so, she added, “The United States will be standing by to assist Israel in its defense.” Her remarks echoed those of U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who said on Wednesday that Washington believes the Islamic Republic “should not respond.” “I’m not going to talk about communications between our two governments, real or imagined. But as we have made clear public...
(JNS) — A new poll reveals deep partisan divisions among American voters regarding responsibility for the escalation of the Middle East conflict, with a majority of Democrats blaming Israel. The survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted from Oct. 11-14, found that about 60 percent of voters attribute “a lot” of responsibility for the war’s escalation to Hamas, Iran’s government and Hezbollah. Partisan differences emerge regarding Israel’s role, with approximately 60 percent of Democrats saying the...
(JNS) — A former U.N. soldier in Southern Lebanon told the Danish tabloid B.T. on Sunday that during his service there 10 years ago, “we were totally subject to Hezbollah.” The Danish citizen, who the article named “Michael,” was deployed as part of UNTSO (U.N. Truce Supervision Organization), which works closely with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. UNTSO is tasked with observing and reporting violations of U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006 and calls on the Iranian terror proxy to...
(JTA) — Iran has executed a 20-year-old Jewish man who killed a man in a 2022 fight after the victim’s family refused to negotiate an alternative punishment. Arvin Ghahremani, 20, had been scheduled to be executed in May but received a stay after Jewish and human rights groups around the world called attention to his case. Ghahremani was arrested more than two years ago on charges that he had killed a man with whom he had a financial dispute. In a report published Monday in Mizan Online, an Iranian news agency, the prosecutor for the city of...
(JNS) — A Muslim political strategist from the United Arab Emirates and a Jewish entrepreneur based in Dubai are promoting the landmark Abraham Accords during a joint tour of Australia this week, seeking to combat antisemitism and spread Jewish-Arab coexistence. The unusual 10-day mission to Australia comes as Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza enters its second year, with Jewish communities facing a sharp rise in antisemitism around the globe. “We are standing shoulder to shoulder and sending a message of Arab-Jewish solidarity,” Eitan N...
Two fighter jets nearly collide at Israeli airbase By Lilach Shoval (Israel Hayom via JNS) — A near miss at an Israeli airbase: Drama unfolded at the Ramat David Airbase when an F-16 fighter pilot received clearance from the control tower to take off. While accelerating to 250 km/h, the pilot spotted another fighter jet directly in front of him. At the last possible moment, the pilot shut off his engine and managed to steer the jet away. In a video of the incident revealed on Monday, the surprised fighter pilot is heard asking the control t...
(JTA) — President Joe Biden said he wants Israel’s strike on Iran to be “the end” of direct fighting between the two countries, as Iran said it had the right to respond to the attack but did not vow to do so. Israel said that it had concluded its strikes against Iran and warned Iran against beginning what it called a “new round.” The Israeli attack on Saturday came in response to Iran firing more than 180 missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 and was supported by the Biden administration. But American officials had pressed Israel to avoid bombing nuc...
(JNS) — The United States considers the implementation of the 18-year-old U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 to be the only way to end the war between Israel and the Hezbollah terror organization, Vedant Patel, the principal deputy U.S. State Department spokesman, said at the Foggy Bottom press briefing on Tuesday. “I know that there’s been a lot of interest in 1701 over the past couple of days and perhaps a little bit of misunderstanding in how—or misinterpretation in how it’s being discussed,” Patel said. “So let me just be unequivocally...
(JTA) — When Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi fled Vienna in 1938, a month after the Nazi annexation of Austria, they left behind a collection of artwork, which they and their heirs spent decades trying to retrieve. On Wednesday in New Orleans, FBI agents presented the couple’s grandchildren with one of the looted works: a pastel drawing by French impressionist Claude Monet. “Our grandfather would have been so happy to find out this Monet was being restituted after all his attempts over the years...
(JNS) — As the three-day Association of the United States Army annual meeting and exhibition wound down on Oct. 16 in Washington, word spread among Israeli defense companies that Emmanuel Macron, the French president, intended to ban them from the upcoming Euronaval defense fair outside Paris. A spokesman for a major Israeli defense company told JNS on Wednesday at the Washington event that France’s decision to bar Israeli companies “is not surprising,” referring further questions to the Israeli Defense Ministry. A ministry representative at th...
IDF base’s dining hall reopens a week after deadly Hezbollah strike (JNS) — The dining hall of the Israel Defense Forces training base, has been repaired and reopened one week after a deadly drone attack by Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah. According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, restoration work was completed on the eve of the Sukkot holiday. The drone strike on Oct. 13 killed four soldiers and wounded dozens more at the Golani Brigade training base, located near Binyamina in northern Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tour...
(JNS) — An executive at CBS, in an email in August, instructed employees to “not refer to Jerusalem as being in Israel,” The Free Press reported on Thursday. Mark Memmott, the senior director of standards and practices at the news department of the New York-based broadcasting network, acknowledged that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but added this did not mean that CBS should accept this. “Yes, the U.S. embassy is there and the Trump administration recognized it as being Israel’s capital. But its status is disputed...
By Asaf Elia-Shalev (JTA) — After Canadian tax authorities revoked the charitable status of the Ne’eman Foundation in August, the organization, which distributes funds to various causes in Israel, began instructing prospective donors to contribute through another recently formed Canadian charity. Six weeks later, Canadian officials imposed a one-year suspension on that charity, called the Emunim Fund, according to its listing on the Canada Revenue Agency website. CRA regulators had previously raised concerns about particular Ne’eman Found...
Damage from Iran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage tops $40m (JNS) — The Islamic Republic’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack inflicted an estimated 150 million to 200 million shekels ($40 million-$53 million) in damage, according to an initial Israel Tax Authority assessment published on Sunday. Since the attack, approximately 2,500 compensation claims have been submitted to the Israeli government, including some 2,200 instances of damage to buildings and 300 claims of damage to vehicles and their contents. The Jewish state has vowed a significant respo...
(JTA) - You could say he said sorry with a little help from his friends. Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, attended Yom Kippur services on Saturday with his Jewish wife in Santiago, Chile. He had performed a solo concert there on Friday night, the beginning of the Jewish holiday of atonement. Ariela Agosin, president of Chile Jewish Community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that McCartney had arranged his attendance at the Círculo Israelita Synagogue through a friend but that very few in...
(JNS) — In a preview that it released of its interview with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, which aired on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, 60 Minutes asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a close U.S. ally. The Democratic nominee for president opted instead to critique the CBS News program’s question. Bill Whitaker asked Harris, “Do we have a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu?” “I think, with all due respect, the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American pe...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — The last time President Joe Biden helped Israel repel an Iranian missile onslaught, he advised Benjamin Netanyahu against retaliation, telling the prime minister to “take the win.” Now, after another barrage of missiles from Iran, things have changed: He’s giving Israel a green light — albeit with qualifications — to strike back. Last week, the United States assisted Israel in repelling nearly 200 ballistic missiles Iran launched at the country, similar to what had occurred in April. The attack came after Israel killed...
(JTA) — American troops will be stationed in Israel for the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, as the country prepares for ongoing conflict with Iran. The announcement that U.S. personnel would arrive came on the same day that a Hezbollah drone strike on a military base in Israel killed four soldiers and injured nearly 60. Sunday’s developments signal that the war that began more than a year ago with Hamas’ invasion of Israel may expand across the region. Since last Oct. 7, the U.S. has moved aircraft carriers to the region, devoted billions of do...
Jewish leaders in Virginia oppose Kaine’s call to stop weapon transfers to Israel (JNS) — Concern expressed by Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that certain U.S.-supplied arms sent to Israel could kill Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and Judea and Samaria, prompted pushback from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. Kaine released a statement last week about his intent to stop five out of 100 weapon transfers to Israel. “Since February, I have called on the Biden administration to support Israel through the provision of defen...
(JNS) — The Biden administration plans to send $157 million in new funding to “populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region,” drawing criticism, including from members of Congress, that the the monies are being misdirected. “The United States will provide nearly $157 million in new U.S. humanitarian assistance to support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region,” stated U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday. “This funding will address new and existing needs of internally displaced persons and refugee...
(JNS) — The Biden administration has offered Israel a “compensation package” if it refrains from striking certain targets in Iran as part of its retaliation for Tehran’s Oct. 1 attack, Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reported on Sunday. U.S. officials offered their Israeli counterparts “extensive diplomatic backing and additional military aid” if certain targets inside Iranian territory were spared, according to the report. An Israeli official told Kan, “We consider the United States to be our ally and are always ready to listen. At the...
(JNS) — In a statement marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, referred to the terror group’s “abhorrent” acts and said that the ensuing war “continues to shatter lives and inflict profound human suffering for Palestinians in Gaza, and now the people of Lebanon.” “The Oct. 7 attack scarred souls, and on this day we remember all those who were brutally killed and suffered unspeakable violence, including sexual violence, as they were simply livi...
