Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1176 - 1200 of 1215
(JNS)-Following Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's announcement that he will formally indict Benjamin Netanyahu in three separate corruption cases, and the prime minister's inability to form a parliamentary majority following two snap elections, calls are rising from within the ruling Likud Party for leadership primaries. Former minister Gideon Sa'ar has called for the party to a primary for party chairman within the next two weeks in order to enable a new party leader an opportunity to form... Full story
(JTA)-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this week that the United States will no longer consider Israeli Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria to be illegal. Here's an explainer about what the settlements are, how they are viewed in Israel and around the world, and what this announcement might mean. What are the settlements? How many Israelis live there? In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured large swaths of territory from neighboring countries. Israel took the Sinai Peninsula and the... Full story
If you heard about the Palestinian Authority’s premediated “Day of Rage” this week, then it was probably “successful” from the perspective of being yet another hostile activity to protest and incite against Israel’s existence, perhaps drawing made for TV violence in which Palestinian Arab casualties draw higher ratings as Palestinian Arabs arm their young with rocks and Molotov cocktails to instigate violence from Israeli troops. If you didn’t hear about it, the “failure” is a hopeful sign of either the boredom of their people, and/or yo... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Benjamin Netanyahu has been charged in three corruption cases, marking the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister has been indicted. The charges, announced on Nov. 21 by the Justice Ministry and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, include bribery and breach of public trust. Netanyahu has denied all the charges and has called the investigations against him a "witch hunt." He has 30 days to request that the Knesset grant him parliamentary immunity in order to avoid a... Full story
(JNS)—Israel might be headed to a third election after all since Blue and White leader Benny Gantz could not cobble together a coalition government. His efforts followed those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also the head of Likud, who was also unable to form a government. Gantz informed Israeli President Reuven Rivlin of the news on Wednesday, following short-lived efforts by the two party heads to attempt a unity government. “I asked of the prime minister, who lost in the electio... Full story
By Laura Ben-David TEKOA, WEST BANK (JTA)-I have lived in Israel for 17 years, and I have lived in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank the entire time. To much of the world, that makes me a settler who lives on illegally occupied land. The international community considers all Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law-including East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank, known as Judea and Samaria to us Israelis. Some of these areas are places that Jews have lived... Full story
In a trip organized by Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, 20 prominent business and philanthropic interfaith leaders—many of whom hadn’t been to Israel before—came to the Negev and visited the main IDF training base, Tze’elim. The visit was hosted by FIDF supporter and philanthropist Alan Ginsburg of Orlando, Florida, as part of a mission trip aimed at giving the guests an inside look into the IDF and show the soldiers their solidarity and appreciation. The list of participants included Daivd Lamm, chairman and CEO of Lamm & Company Partner... Full story
(JNS)-A ceasefire that appeared fragile, and which was punctured twice by rocket fire from Gaza, went into effect on Thursday, Nov. 14, after 50 hours of combat between the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror faction and the Israel Defense Forces. As many as 450 rockets were fired at Israeli cities and towns throughout the escalation, though more than 90 percent of those that were heading into built-up areas were shot out of the sky by Iron Dome air-defense batteries. Some 60... Full story
(JTA)—Fifty-eight Israelis were injured during the wave of rocket attacks fired by terror groups from Gaza this week. Thirty-four Palestinians, most of them reported to be members of Islamic Jihad and other Gaza terror groups, were killed in retaliatory strikes. The attacks cost the Israeli economy $315 million and three homes were directly hit, the consulate general of Israel in New York said in a statement Thursday. After the Israel Defense Forces killed two Palestinian Islamic Jihad senior commanders—Baha Abu al-Ata and Rasmi Abu Mal... Full story
Under normal circumstances, most kids look for excuses to stay home from school, at least once in a while. This week in Israel, 300,000 kids stayed home from school a few days in a row. Under the circumstances, they'd probably rather have been in school. Beginning early Tuesday, Palestinian Arab terrorists fired more than 400 rockets at Israeli communities from Gaza, forcing schools and businesses to close in order to prevent too many people gathering in any one place, despite bomb shelters... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—A rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza struck an assisted-living facility in the southern Israel city of Ashkelon on Wednesday afternoon, injuring a woman in her 70s. The resident was injured in the face and arms by flying glass after the rocket crashed through her living unit. The Israeli military said 360 rockets had been fired at Israel from Gaza between Tuesday morning—since its targeted killing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad senior commander Baha Abu al-Ata—and about 5 p.m. Wednesday. Two Israelis have been injur... Full story
(JNS, Israel Hayom)—“The new rules of the game are clear—the IDF will operate freely, without any limitation,” Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said on Thursday, a short while after a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad went into effect, ending two days of intense rocket-fire from the Gaza Strip. Bennett, who took up his post as defense minister on Tuesday as rockets fell across central and southern Israel following the targeted killing of PIJ commander Baha Abu al-Ata, singled out residents of the country... Full story
After Israel killed a top commander from the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in a rare targeted strike in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the group's leader said that Israel has pushed the group "to go to war." Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a statement saying, "These terrorist crimes are aggression and a declaration of war on the Palestinian people, and the enemy bears for responsibility for them." Additionally, Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala of the Palestinian... Full story
With little progress otherwise reported toward forming a new Israeli government, one point of agreement which is said to exist between Likud and Blue and White is over Israel’s right to claim sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea area. Before the September 17 Knesset election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he intended to immediately annex the Jordan Valley if he is re-elected. “In Blue and White, they are prepared to begin a process of imposing Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the northern Dea... Full story
(JNS)-Palestinian Islamic Jihad-the second-largest armed terror faction in Gaza after Hamas-is agitating for violence, and is in fact the organization that conducted Friday-night's rocket barrage on the Israeli border city of Sderot. It appears as if the commander of the PIJ's northern Gaza brigade-a terror chief named Baha Abu Al Atta-is directly behind the latest rocket fire that targeted Israeli civilians. The Iron Dome air-defense system intercepted most of the incoming rockets, though one... Full story
(JNS)—As Iranians took to the streets this week to commemorate 40 years since the U.S. embassy takeover in 1979, Iran announced new violations of the nuclear deal it signed in 2015. The rogue Islamic Republic admitted that it now operates 60 advanced IR-6 centrifuges and is working on a new type of centrifuge that will work 50 times faster than what is currently permitted under the deal. This announcement comes after Iran has engaged in attacks on oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities, shooting down an American drone, and, of course, its ongoing... Full story
(JNS)-Benny Gantz and the Blue and White Party are hard at work trying to find other parties to join his coalition to give him the 61 mandates needed to form a government. Much talk has centered on the possibility that he would form a minority government with the support of the Joint Arab List. Yariv Levin, Likud Tourism Minister and chief negotiator in coalition talks, told JNS that "Blue and White has not ruled out the option of a minority government with the Arab parties." On Sunday, Gantz... Full story
A Kurdish refugee toddler-we'll call him Ajwan, for security reasons-is the latest of 44 Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish children who've had emergency medical treatment at Israel's Sheba Medical Center in 2019 alone. Ajwan, three and a half, had lifesaving open-heart surgery that wasn't available in Iraqi Kurdistan, where his family has been living for a few years due to the dangers the community faces in northern Syria. "I was not afraid to come to Israel, even though I was warned I could lose my... Full story
(JTA)—As of Wednesday morning, Israel’s embassies and consulates across the globe are on strike. “No consular services will be provided and no one will be allowed to enter,” one ambassador posted on Twitter. Those services include passport renewal and assistance to Israelis living abroad. Why has Israel’s entire foreign service shut down? In a word: taxes. Israeli diplomats get lump-sum expense stipends meant to cover a range of personal and official expenses. The Finance Ministry now says it wants the diplomats to submit individual receipts... Full story
Shir Tabac had always yearned for a dog, but it wasn't until she completed her military service and went to college that she felt ready to make the commitment. "It was the first time I was living independently, and I wondered how I could have a dog and do something good at the same time," said Tabac, now a third-year chemistry student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. "I realized that volunteering to train a guide dog was the perfect plan." Within a month of arriving at the... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Benny Gantz said Wednesday that he will aim to form a unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party to "repair the divisions in our society." "I promised I would form a liberal unity government and that is what I intend to do," Gantz said. The Blue and White party leader made the remarks after being officially tasked by President Reuven Rivlin with forming a government. After accepting the mandate at Rivlin's official residence in Jerusalem, Gantz commented, "I... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Carved into the rock on the side of a mountain directly under the Har HaMenuchot cemetery here lies the entrance to Jerusalem's newest necropolis, a city of the dead that its designers hope will relieve a shortage of burial space in the capital. A local engineering firm and Jerusalem's largest burial society have devised a plan to radically change how Jerusalemites dispose of their dead by building a modern system of burial caves, a throwback to a practice discontinued some two... Full story
Two days shy of his 28-day time limit to establish a government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that he cannot form a coalition and that he is returning the mandate to do so to President Reuven Rivlin, paving the way for Benny Gantz, leader of Kahol Lavan (Blue and White party) to try to create a government. Gantz will have 28 days to try to form a coalition. What happens if the Gantz-led coalition talks also fail? Then any lawmaker backed by a majority of at least 61 Knes... Full story
(JNS)-This year, more than 5,000 Christians from all parts of the world gathered on Thursday for the city's annual Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) festive march around Israel's capital, which saw 10,000 participants in total. The Jerusalem municipality organized and funded the march and entertainment events, with participants coming to Israel from 100 nations. The arrival of the Christian pilgrims, who come annually to Israel for Sukkot, was facilitated in part by the International Christian Embas... Full story
(Israel Hayom via JNS)-Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has ordered his office to draw up plans to stop the Turkish government's efforts to undermine Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and protect Jordan's special status as guardian of Muslim holy sites in the city. Katz intends to present the plan to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon. Due to the sensitivity of the plan, the implementation of which will almost certainly lead to a direct confrontation with Ankara, it is also... Full story
