Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Israel will fight until it is victorious, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday. During a visit to an IDF staging area near the Gaza border where he met with soldiers, Gallant said: "I see the determination, the spirit of battle, and above all, the motivation to carry out everything needed to defeat Hamas, to eliminate terrorist infrastructure, and to execute the mission as needed." Israel has been attacking Hamas targets from the air since the Oct. 7 massacre that killed more...
(JTA) — Hours after Saturday’s deadly surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, the Israeli protest group Achim le’Neshek (Brothers and Sisters in Arms) was helping arrange transportation for army reservists being called to the front. “Brothers and Sisters in Arms call on everyone who is required to stand up for the defense of Israel without hesitation and immediately,” the group tweeted early Saturday. “Right now the most important thing is the safety of the country’s citizens.” It was an abrupt turnabout by a group of military veterans and re...
(JNS) - "You're not going out. You are not going out." Those were 63-year-old Vivian Roitman's fateful words to her 72-year-old husband Menachem on the morning of Oct. 7, after the Hamas terrorists who had ransacked their home in southern Israel and failed to open the door to the safe room in which they were hiding had left the house. She didn't know it then, but the terrorists would be back less than two hours later for another attempt to murder or kidnap them, and then again for a third...
(JNS) — The leaders of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government endorsed the establishment of an “emergency national government” during a meeting of the party heads on Tuesday. “Every head of the coalition parties, without exception, supported the establishment of an emergency national government and authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act to create it,” a spokesperson for the ruling Likud Party announced. Local media reported that an agreement for Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party to join the coalition is...
(JNS) — After more than 3,000 Jewish pilgrims visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the first days of the week-long Sukkot holiday, one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key ultra-Orthodox coalition partners on Wednesday demanded that the holy site be closed to Jews. “The ascension to Temple Mount involves a severe prohibition of karet,” tweeted United Torah Judaism Party MK Moshe Gafni, using the Hebrew religious term for divinely-inflicted premature death. “It pains my heart that 3,000 Jews violated this severe prohibiti...
(JNS) — Israeli forces have regained control of all the communities near the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday morning after two days of combat with Hamas terrorists. “We are in control of the ‘Gaza envelope’ communities,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told journalists during a press briefing. He warned, however, that there are still terrorists in the area. Hagari added that the military has called up 300,000 reservists. Early Monday morning, exchanges of fire took place at Kibbutz Be’eri, Kibbutz Holit, Kibb...
(JNS) — Israeli forces killed several terrorists attempting to enter Israel from Lebanon, Army Radio reported on Monday afternoon. “The IDF forces killed a number of militants who crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanese territory,” the Israel Defense Forces confirmed in a statement. The IDF was searching the area to make sure additional terrorists had not entered the country, while attack helicopters carried out strikes near the border. Residents near the border fence were instructed to remain in their homes, with their doors locked and li...
(JNS) - The Hamas gunman aimed his rifle at the elderly couple in their home in Ofakim, southern Israel, early Saturday morning. He held a grenade on Rachel Edri's head, began screaming "Allah Akbar" and announced he was a "martyr." But Edri maintained her composure. Thinking quickly, she offered the group of five terrorists refreshments, and later a meal, engaging them in small talk, playing for time until security personnel could arrive. For the next 20 hours, Rachel and her husband, David,...
(JTA) - One, just out of the army, told his dad "I love you" and "I'm sorry" then went quiet. One who just joined the army has no family nearby, so a stranger is keeping him company in the hospital. One was a peace activist. These are some of the stories beginning to emerge as Israel strives to identify the hundreds of people who are dead and dozens who are missing after Saturday's attack on southern Israel by Hamas. There are no figures yet on the number of North Americans killed or abducted...
(JNS) — As Israel entered its third day of war with Hamas, an Israeli official denied it was negotiating for the release of hostages held by the terror group via Qatar. “There is no negotiation,” an Israeli official said, according to The Times of Israel, disavowing the claim of a Hamas source to the contary. Qatari mediators have been trying to negotiate the freedom of Israeli women and children in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israel’s prisons, Reuters reported on Monday. The negotiations, conduct...
Rescuers without borders medics arrived at the Gaza border on Shabbat/Saturday to help the wounded. Spokeswoman Natalie Sopinsky said they were able to get there quickly because 1) the medics are armed and 2) they have an armored ambulance. “We have remained there, working hand-in-hand with Magen David Adom. This is ongoing and we are working in shifts with volunteer from around the country. All hands are needed in the war effort and we are doing our best to treat wounded civilians and soldiers.” Sopinsky stated that they now need a 2nd tea...
(JNS) - The Jerusalem March, the largest and oldest march in Israel, took place during the intermediate days of Sukkot, with tens of thousands of Israelis and participants from some 90 other countries joined in. Participants had the choice of three routes on Oct. 4: A 10-km. (6.2-mile) circuit, suitable for experienced walkers; one of about 8 km. (5 miles), medium level of difficulty; and one of about 5 km. (3.1 miles), low level of difficulty and suitable for the whole family. The event...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday in Berlin signed an agreement to provide Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany. At an estimated value of $3.5 billion, the deal is the largest of its kind in Israel’s history. The first missile battery, including radar, launch and interception management systems, is to be supplied to the Germans by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) by the fourth quarter of 2025. Germany is the first foreign purchaser of the system. Arrow 3 is the upper-tier layer of Israel’s missile defense...
(JNS) — President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among the speakers Tuesday at Israel’s state memorial ceremony marking 50 years since the Yom Kippur War. The ceremony took place at the Hall of Remembrance on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The attendees included Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Supreme Court Justice Yitzhak Amit. On Oct. 6, 1973, a coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, coordinated a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, “thinking that the IDF would not be able to defen...
(JNS) - A 2,300-year-old tomb of a courtesan, including among other things a well-preserved bronze mirror, has been uncovered on a major Jerusalem thoroughfare, offering rare evidence of the Hellenistic period in the city, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The burial cave, which was discovered on a rocky slope aside Hebron Road and near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, included the cremated remains of a young woman alongside a box mirror in a perfect state of preservation, the...
This story will be updated. (Oct. 9, 2023, JTA) — A massive military operation is underway to place Gaza under a “complete siege,” Israel’s defense minister said on Monday, 48 hours after a surprise attack by Hamas left 800 Israelis dead, thousands wounded and more than 100 captive in Gaza. “We are going to change the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, according to Israeli media. Meanwhile, a second front in the war has threatened to open up. On Monday, a number of gunmen entered Israel’s north from Le... Full story
(JNS) - The world's largest sukkah is set to open to the public in Jerusalem, with plans for a series of free events, including workshops, plays, musical performances and virtual reality activities, for all ages and sectors. The "Mayor of Jerusalem's Sukkah" will be erected in Safra Square and be open during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday (Oct. 1-5) from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. It will also be open on Sept. 30 for a few hours after 9 p.m. and on Oct. 6 in the early morning. The...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his country’s leading nuclear and security specialists to work with U.S. negotiators to find a compromise that lets Saudi Arabia enrich uranium, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Israeli officials are “quietly working” with the White House to develop a “U.S.-run, uranium-enrichment operation” in Saudi Arabia for a civilian nuclear program, a key condition of the kingdom for accepting a normalization agreement with Israel, officials from both countries told the Journal. Ma...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday set the boundaries of three new communities in Judea, marking the first step in the legalization under Israeli law of nine outposts that received official government approval earlier this year. Two of the new towns, Avigayil and Asael, are located in the South Hebron Hills, while the third, Beit Hogla, is part of the Megilot Regional Council near the Dead Sea. IDF Ground Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai on Wednesday night signed the order...
(JTA) — For almost nine months, Israelis have been fighting over the future of their Supreme Court. Today, that battle has moved into the Supreme Court itself. In July, Israel’s hardline right-wing governing coalition passed a law to weaken the court. Opponents of the law then filed legal challenges against it. That put the court in the uncomfortable, and unprecedented, position of ruling on itself: It can decide to uphold the law, strike it down, or send it back to parliament to be amended. When Israelis on both sides of the debate warned tha...
(JNS) - A cache of weapons believed to have been hidden by Jews during their revolt against the Romans nearly two millennia ago has been uncovered in the Judean Desert, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The cache, comprising four well-preserved 1,900-year-old Roman swords and a shafted weapon, were found in a crevice in a cave in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve near the Dead Sea about two months ago. They were apparently hidden by Judean rebels after being seized from the...
(JNS) — Israel’s National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz on Tuesday dismissed as “spin” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for compromise talks regarding the government’s judicial reform plan. The former defense minister and leading opposition figure made the statement minutes after Netanyahu published a video message urging Gantz to “put aside all the prerequisites, all the obstacles, enter the room and talk.” Saying that the Israeli government had been “captured by extremists,” Gantz called for Netanyahu to dissolve the Knesset and hea...
(JNS) - Scientists at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science have successfully created complete synthetic models of human embryos using laboratory-grown stem cells, according to an official release from the Institute. The synthetic embryos were nurtured outside the womb and survived up to 14 days of development with all the features characteristic of their stage, even though no sperm or eggs were used. The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, hold significant promise for dive...
(JNS) — The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday rejected Knesset member Simcha Rothman’s request to issue a restraining order against 430 opponents of judicial reform, members of a WhatsApp messaging group called “Looking for and harassing Rothman.” “After weighing all the considerations, I found that the respondents’ activity apparently falls within the scope of a permissible political protest, in accordance with the rules of the democratic game,” said Judge Naeel Mohana. Such an order would restrict “the basic fundamental rights of the...
(JTA) — What appears to have been the first-ever passenger flight between Saudi Arabia and Israel has taken place — even though the two countries have not yet established diplomatic relations. An Air Seychelles flight to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing on Monday in the the port city of Jeddah, where passengers spent the night. On Tuesday, they flew from there to Ben Gurion International Airport. “I really appreciate the warm way in which the Saudi authorities treated the Israeli passengers,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in...
