Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 306 - 330 of 1322
(JNS) — Half a dozen Middle East experts indicated that it was news to them when JNS drew their attention to a recent phrase that the U.S. Defense Department has published on its website referring to the Gaza Strip as “entirely inside Israel.” “The Gaza Strip, which is about 25 miles long, lies entirely inside Israel and shares a border to the south with Egypt,” C. Todd Lopez wrote on the Pentagon website on Tuesday. “There are three locations along its border where humanitarian supplies could move into Gaza from either Egypt or Israel.” Th...
(JNS) — Israel Defense Forces ground troops on May 8 continued the offensive against Hamas in the Gaza terrorist bastion of Rafah. Soldiers killed an unknown number of gunmen and located tunnel shafts and other underground infrastructure on the 215th day of the war, the army announced. “IDF forces led by the 162nd Division and under the intelligence guidance of the Shin Bet and the Military Intelligence Directorate continue targeted operations in eastern Rafah against Hamas terrorists and the group’s terrorist infrastructure,” the army said. I...
(JNS) - The head of South Africa's second-largest church visiting Israel in solidarity with the Jewish state said Sunday that the South African government is out of sync with the people in its stance on the war with Hamas by supporting a terror organization. The unequivocal remarks by the South African Christian leader against the ruling African National Congress come just weeks before general elections in South Africa, which has emerged as one of Israel's most vocal critics in the world over...
Jerusalem, Israel - "Unprecedented." "Monumental." "Timely." "Powerful." These are just some of the words describing the upcoming Global Prayer for Israel, bringing thousands of Jews and Christians together from all over the world to pray for Israel. With Israel at war, and Christians standing with Israel and the Jewish people at levels that are unprecedented in history, Christians are experiencing the hate and persecution toward Israel and the Jewish people that's more than vicarious, but...
(JNS) - The Biden administration is considering a plan to allow some Gaza residents to resettle in the United States, CBS News reported on Tuesday, citing internal federal government documents. According to the documents, senior officials from various U.S. federal agencies have discussed options for bringing Gazans to the country who have immediate family members who are either American citizens or permanent residents. One option under discussion is the United States Refugee Admissions Program,...
(JNS) — Saudi Arabia has decided to normalize relations with Israel and is debating the timing of the announcement, a foreign diplomat familiar with the details told Haaretz on Monday. According to the source cited in the article by the daily’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Lis, Riyadh is discussing whether to make the move in the coming weeks or after the U.S. presidential election this November, in which either Democrat Joe Biden will continue to lead the country or his challenger Republican Donald Trump will return to the White Hou...
A new Israeli relocation company, Belong, is offering free concierge support services to 500 Jewish students at Columbia University and at other campuses nationwide embattled by anti-Israel protests and growing antisemitism and violence to help them study in Israel instead. Belong, which opened its doors last month, provides a range of concierge relocation services to immigrants to Israel and to those seeking temporary Israel experiences including study abroad and post-graduate degrees. Belong’s services generally range from free online r...
(JNS) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders as part of his Middle East tour to Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, his seventh trip to the Jewish state since the current Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7. Blinken met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, where they "discussed ongoing efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal and emphasized that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a ceasefire...
(JNS) — In the latest example of a deep-seated anti-Israel bias within the International Committee of the Red Cross, the head of the ICRC’s office in Algeria and director of the Libya subdelegation has been outed as a pro-Hamas shill. Geneva-based, pro-Israel group U.N. Watch exposed the pro-terrorist sentiments of the ICRC official, who appears to be based in Montreal. “Meet Haythem ‘Ethan’ Abid. He runs the International Red Cross in Montreal. His job is to be neutral. But Abid marches in ‘Free Palestine’ rallies, posts Hamas videos saying...
(JNS) — Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has reiterated its desire to reconcile with Hamas, China’s Foreign Ministry announced following talks in Beijing. Representatives of Fatah and Hamas recently held negotiations in the Chinese capital with a view to forging a Palestinian unity government. Fatah reportedly dispatched Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Samir al-Rifai, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee. The Hamas delegation was led by the deputy head o...
Israel opening its universities to besieged US Jewish students (JNS) — Israel has launched a program to facilitate the educational transfer of Jewish students from American universities under siege by pro-Hamas agitators. The Israeli Diaspora Affairs Ministry has issued the call to Israeli universities to absorb as many Jewish-American college students as possible, with the assistance of a data-driven program developed by Inbal Ratz-Gilmore and professor Yuval Sinai of the Kohelet Policy Forum, a Jerusalem-based think tank that promotes free-ma...
(JNS) — Jerusalem believes that the International Criminal Court in The Hague will issue arrest warrants against senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Diplomatic efforts to thwart ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan’s move have failed, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported. International arrest warrants are expected to be filed against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, according the the report. The broadcaster said the warrants would likely be issued against the backg...
The U.S. Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid package late Tuesday that includes $26 billion in wartime assistance for Israel and $9 billion in humanitarian aid, some of which will be allotted for the Gaza Strip. The bill passed the Senate on an overwhelming 79-18 vote after the House had approved the package Saturday, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk after months of delays. U.S. officials told AP that about $1 billion of the aid could be on its way shortly, with the bulk following in the coming weeks. “Tonight, a bip...
(JNS) — There can be no negotiations with Israel as the Jewish people are “slayers of prophets,” a top Qatari official told representatives at a recent Arab League summit, according to a translation of the speech the Middle East Media Research Institute published on Wednesday. Essa bin Ahmad al-Nassr, who serves on Doha’s Shura Council legislature and holds the rank of brigadier-general in the Qatari Armed Forces’ elite Emiri Guard protection unit, threatened the annihilation of the Jewish state. Qatar, which hosts Hamas leaders and has provi...
Hottest April day in the Tel Aviv area since 1907 (JNS) — The greater Tel Aviv area along Israel’s central Mediterranean coastline, known as Gush Dan, suffered its hottest day in April since 1907, the country’s meteorological service reported on Thursday. Records were broken in Yavne, where temps skyrocketed to 42.4 degrees Celsius (107.96 degrees Fahrenheit) and in Nitzan, near Ashkelon, where the thermometer rose to 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit). In the city of Tel Aviv, the high was 40.7 degrees Celsius (105.26 degrees Fahren...
(JNS) — The U.N. Security Council’s committee on new members reported on Tuesday that it could not reach a consensus on the revived application for full Palestinian U.N. membership. Algeria, the Arab world’s de facto representative on the council, has drafted its own resolution and plans to put the application up for a decisive vote on Thursday afternoon. Washington has suggested that it would veto such an application. The Committee on the Admission of New Members, which includes representatives of all the members of the Security Counc...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — An Iranian athlete who posted criticism online of Iran’s April 14 attack on Israel has reportedly been arrested, and her whereabouts have been unknown since Wednesday, according to media reports. Iranian national volleyball team player Mobina Rostami posted on her Instagram account: “As an Iranian, I am truly ashamed of the authorities’ attack on Israel, but you need to know that the people in Iran love Israel and hate the Islamic Republic.” She was reportedly arrested shortly afterwards. One of the comments on her po...
(JNS) - Some 50 animators and producers responsible for the character of Batman in various productions over the years signed a petition this week calling on Qatar and Egypt, two mediators in hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, to push for the release of the Bibas family. The Bibas family has been held in the Gaza Strip for 193 days. The father, Yarden, 34, his wife Shiri, 32, and their two children, Kfir, who spent his first birthday in captivity, and Ariel, 4, were kidnapped from Kibbutz...
Iranian citizens are praising the Israeli army and calling on the Jewish State to assassinate key ruling figures such as the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini, as Iran girds for a potential Israeli retaliation following an unprecedented missile and drone attack. Residents of Iran are expressing those sentiments via social media posts and subversive street graffiti, with many asking Israel to bring down the government, which rules according to a strict interpretation of Islamic law. “Israel, strike back. They don’t have the guts to take rev...
(JNS) — Christian and Jewish leaders gathered in Washington on Monday evening to call for Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and to oppose proposals for the creation of a Palestinian state in the wake of Oct. 7. David Friedman, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and one of the leaders of the Keep God’s Land movement that organized the event, told JNS that the group proposes to extend Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria. “Some of the most important parts of biblical Israel—whether it’s the Old City of Jerusalem, the city of...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — As the United States and other countries pressure Israel to increase food aid to Gaza, Israeli officials familiar with the situation say Gaza has been overwhelmed by food aid. Israeli officials harshly criticize American representatives, led by Ambassador David Satterfield, accusing them of echoing the lie about “starvation in Gaza.” Every evening at 8 p.m., a quadrilateral forum takes place with representatives from Israel, the United States, the United Nations and Egypt, where a daily report on the humanitarian situa...
(JNS) — Forty-eight countries condemned Iran and its proxies for the Apr. 14 missile and drone attack on Israel in a joint statement issued on Wednesday evening. “We unequivocally condemn” the attacks, read the statement, specifically naming Iran and its “militant partners” and noting that “this large-scale attack could have caused significant damage and loss of life.” While garnering broad support, the statement was only signed by Western nations. The effort was led by the United States and included five other members of the U.N. Security...
(JNS) — The negotiations to forge a deal wherein Hamas would free hostages held in Gaza in return for a ceasefire and the release of terrorists held in Israeli prisons are at a delicate stage, Qatar’s prime minister said on Wednesday. “We are going through a sensitive stage with some stalling, and we are trying as much as possible to address this,” said Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. The Gulf nation is mediating the talks, along with Egypt and the U.S. While Israel has shown flexibility in the hopes of arriving at a hostage deal, Hamas h...
(JNS) — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a dozen pro-Israel and anti-Iran bills and resolutions this week, in the wake of the Islamic Republic’s missile attack against the Jewish state on Saturday. Lawmakers passed two bills on Monday that target Iran’s finances and a third that would deny tax-exempt status to U.S. charities that fund foreign terrorist organizations. The House passed nine bills and resolutions on Tuesday designed to support the Jewish state and combat Iran. Most of the bills passed overwhelmingly, facing oppos...
(JTA) — The mother of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, is one of nearly a dozen Jews on Time Magazine’s 100 “Most Influential” list, couched among comedians, writers, music producers, athletes, business executives, and politicians. Since Oct. 7, Rachel Goldberg-Polin has become one of the most prominent and indefatigable voices advocating for the release of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza. She has attended an audience with Pope Francis, Zoomed with President Joe Biden and spo...
