Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called Argentinian President-elect Javier Milei "a true friend of Israel" and invited him to visit Jerusalem. The Israeli leader congratulated Milei on his election victory in a "friendly" telephone call and thanked him for supporting Israel in its war against Hamas as well as for his pledge to move Argentina's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to the Prime Minister's Office. In a major foreign policy shift, Milei has said...
Herzog honors Kibbutz Be’eri heroes by inscribing Torah scroll (JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog paid tribute on Sunday to the more than 100 residents of Kibbutz Be’eri who were murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, as he inscribed a letter in a Torah scroll that will be used in the community’s rebuilt synagogue. Herzog dedicated the scroll “to all those slaughtered in Your holy name, the defenders of the land who stood up as heroes to fight against the evil terrorists who came to destroy us on the day of the joy of our Torah.” ...
(OFAKIM, Israel, JNS) — A reverential silence fell on the room as the four American-Muslim women bowed their heads in prayer on Friday for the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel. Moments earlier, the interfaith crowd in the apartment in this western Negev city, which included Muslims, Jews, a white-turbaned Sikh, a mixed Israeli family and Mayor Yitzhak Danino, stood mesmerized as the Arabic words of supplication for the Israelis murdered in the massacre were intoned. “The Muslim world was...
(JTA) - Javier Milei, a colorful right-wing "anarcho-capitalist" who has said he would like to convert to Judaism, was elected president of Argentina. Milei's passionate love of Judaism and Israel has been one of the several unexpected qualities that Argentines and political analysts have become accustomed to during his rapid rise over the past year. Milei, 53, throughout his campaign blamed the outgoing government for soaring inflation and poverty rates. That government included Cristina...
(JNS) — Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of Hamas’s original founders, on Tuesday called on Israel to set a time limit for the terror group to release all Israeli hostages, and to assassinate his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, and other Hamas leaders if they don’t. “Hamas must have a timeframe—a month or two or six months—to return the hostages, and if they don’t return the hostages within the time frame, Israel must execute top Hamas leaders in prison, especially the mass murderers,” said Yousef in a video message posted online. “When I...
(JTA) — Jewish groups are criticizing Pope Francis for appearing to accuse both Israel and Hamas of “terrorism” in their ongoing war that started Oct. 7. “This is what wars do,” the pope said at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday. “But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism.” Francis’ comments followed separate meetings with Jewish relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza on Wednesday. His remarks come a month after he called on Hamas to free the hostages being he...
(JNS) - Chinese naval vessels ignored repeated distress calls from an Israeli-owned commercial tanker that was under attack by suspected Somali pirates on Sunday, according to the Pentagon. The USS Mason destroyer and allied ships-reportedly belonging to Japan- recovered the Israel-linked Central Park tanker, which an "unknown entity" hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen, U.S. Central Command confirmed on Monday. Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed that at...
TAIPEI (JTA) - For a few years eight decades ago, Shanghai was home to an outpost of what would become BBYO, the global Jewish youth movement. At the time, the Chinese city was a refuge for Jews fleeing Europe. Fifteen German Jewish teens created an Aleph Zadik Aleph chapter in June 1941, but when they left Asia after the war, the youth movement ended, too. Now, the network of small but significant Jewish communities scattered across Asia has resurrected BBYO's presence on the continent. About...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces is investigating claims that three members of the Bibas family in Gaza, including 10-month-old Kfir, died in Hamas captivity, the military said on Wednesday. The "military" wing of Hamas announced the deaths Kfir, his brother Ariel, 4, and his mother, Shiri, 32, the Hamas- and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated Quds News Network reported earlier on Nov. 28. Without presenting evidence, the Al-Qassam Brigades attributed their deaths to "a previous Israeli...
Israeli Arab detainees refuse to be included in prisoner release deal (JNS) — The attorneys of several Israeli Arab detainees informed the Israeli State Attorney’s Office and Justice Ministry on Wednesday that their clients refuse to be included in a prisoner release deal with Hamas. On Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office released a list of 50 female prisoners in Israeli jails that would be added to the 150 prisoners slated for release as part of a prisoner-exchange deal with Hamas. Of those 50, 22 were Israeli Arabs arrested after O...
Israel’s coalition to advance bill giving Druze special status (JNS) — Israel’s government coalition announced on Saturday evening that it will advance a Basic Law to give the Druze community special status. The decision comes as six soldiers from the minority have been killed in action against Hamas terrorists in Gaza during the IDF’s “Operation Swords of Iron.” Coalition chairman Ofir Katz and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced the legislation, saying that “in the coming days we will advance the draft law on the foundation of the Druze com...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Israel’s Gaza operation will last until Hamas no longer has the power to commit the types of atrocities witnessed on Oct. 7. “I think it’s going to stop when Hamas no longer maintains the capacity to murder and abuse and just do horrific things to the Israelis. And they still think they—at least as of this morning, they still thought they could,” Biden said at a press conference in California following a meeting with China’s Xi Jinping. “When Hamas said they plan on doing the same thing...
(JNS) - "We have indeed made history today with over 290,000 of us gathered here on the National Mall. This is the largest pro-Israel gathering in history," William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told attendees of the "March for Israel" on the National Mall in Washington on Nov. 14. Daroff, whose organization represents 50 member groups, added that another 250,000 watched the march on livestream and on C-SPAN. "Look what we can do in just...
On the very same day when over three hundred thousand Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike, travelled to Washington, D.C., to support Israel’s efforts to prevent Hamas from ever slaughtering innocent Jews again, President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken approved 10 billion dollars of additional sanctions relief to the Iranian terror regime. It is beyond recklessly irresponsible, sickening and frightening that the Biden administration authorized releasing money to the Islamic Republic of Iran, while Iran is funding Hamas’ and Hezbo...
(JNS) — While nearly a million residents of Gaza are displaced by war, Hamas’s top leaders and their families have been enriching themselves. The Hamas leadership controls an investment portfolio estimated at close to $1 billion and owns assets in Sudan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt and other places. Hamas imposes taxes of 20 percent on goods smuggled from Egypt to the Strip through tunnels. Reports also indicate that Hamas earns an estimated $450 million annually from Gaza’s black-market trade. Iran is belie...
(JNS) — Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are in the process of setting up field hospitals on Egyptian soil near Gaza to treat Palestinians. A Turkish ship arrived at the port of El Arish in North Sinai, carrying about 500 tons of medical equipment and medicines. The equipment is enough for eight field hospitals. Twenty ambulances will be at their disposal to transport the wounded from Gaza. The UAE is establishing a 150-bed field hospital in the Gaza Strip. Authorities in Dubai are recruiting licensed medical professionals to v...
(JNS) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday called Israel a “terrorist state” and described Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters.” Erdoğan claimed that Israel was attempting to eradicate all of the Gaza Strip and threatened to take steps to ensure that Jerusalem’s political and military leaders are brought to trial in international courts. “Israel is implementing a strategy of total destruction of a city and its people,” said Erdoğan, in an apparent reference to Gaza City. “I say openly that Israel is a terrorist state.” Th...
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...
(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...
(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...
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) — 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...
(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...
