Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that there is “no room for two states” between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, arguing the war created broad public consensus against creating a Palestinian state. “Before the war, the public was divided: although in my opinion most of the public was against it, a significant portion was in favor. I think that has changed,” Netanyahu told reporters, answering a question at a press conference in Jerusalem on Saturday night. “That is a basis for agreement,...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 17 marked the death of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former leader of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty, who died in 1994 at the age of 92. “On the [Hebrew date of] 3rd of Tammuz, I miss the Rebbe of Lubavitch—a towering spiritual leader who saw in every Jew a mission, faith, and infinite strength,” Netanyahu tweeted. “The light in his eyes, his love for the people of Israel, and his call never to despair continue to illuminate our path to this day. I will always remember my moments w...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday sharply rebuked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after he accused “Zionism” of threatening Turkey’s survival, calling the Turkish leader a “dictator” who persecutes opponents and backs jihadist groups. In a post on X, the ministry said that Erdoğan, who “persecutes political opponents, imprisons journalists, massacres Kurds, occupies the territory of Cyprus and backs jihadist groups is now attacking the Middle East’s only democracy,” adding that Israel had “extended its hand in peace to Le...
(JNS) - It is a tragedy in its own right that Ilana Gritzewsky, a liberated Israeli hostage whom Hamas abused sexually, had to confront the United Nations expert on violence against women, according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. "It's absolutely horrible that this should have to be the case," Neuer told JNS on Wednesday, the day after Gritzewsky appeared before the U.N. Human Rights Council to address Reem Alsalem, special rapporteur on violence against women and girls. "It's...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Thursday that he would be cutting ties with the office of E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas “until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state.” Kallas “has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel,” Sa’ar tweeted, responding to reports that the European official, during a closed-door meeting, likened Jerusalem’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa u...
(JNS) - National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Friday called for a dramatically intensified Israeli military response against Lebanon following a Hezbollah drone attack that killed four IDF soldiers in Southern Lebanon. "For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn," Ben-Gvir posted on X. The remarks came hours after the military announced that four IDF soldiers, including Lt. Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, commander of the 52nd...
(JNS) - OFAKIM, Israel-Hidden among the bushes in a southern Israel grove, a young Bedouin busboy and a resident from Kibbutz Be'eri lay quietly for seven hours, afraid to speak as they hid for their lives. They had fled the Hamas-led massacre at the hard-hit kibbutz, less than three miles from Gaza, on Oct. 7, 2023, and were sheltering from terrorists in the thicket as rockets, bullets and explosions whizzed above their heads. Two years later, Hisham Alkarnawi - the Muslim worker from the...
(JNS) - The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund Board of Directors approved a budget of four million shekels (~$1.3 million) to upgrade the Nova Memorial Site and the Iron Swords Forest in Israel's northwestern Negev, the organization said on Thursday. Both sites have become national memorial spaces in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Nova Memorial Site alone attracting more than a quarter of a million visitors during the first four months of 2026, according...
(JNS) — Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Monday morning that the memorandum of understanding reached overnight by Washington and Tehran does not bind the Jewish state. “Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation,” he tweeted in Hebrew. The Israeli government’s duty is to its citizens, its soldiers and the Jewish people, he said. “Every time we succumbed to international pressure at the expense of Israel’s security, we paid in blood with interest. It was true in the Oslo...
(JNS) — Israel is not at war with Lebanon but with Iranian proxy Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Wednesday in a video message to the Lebanese people. “Do you remember what Lebanon was like before Iran and Hezbollah turned it into a nightmare?” he asked. “Remember the cafés? Remember the culture? Remember the calm? All that’s gone because Hezbollah and Iran want to drag us into war over and over and over again. You deserve better. Your children deserve better,” he said. “You know by now that Israel will do what...
(JNS) — While overall congressional travel abroad has fallen sharply this year, Israel remains the top destination for lawmakers taking privately sponsored overseas trips, according to data compiled by the LegiStorm tracking platform. More than one-quarter of the roughly $1.62 million spent on privately funded congressional travel through April went toward trips to Israel, the report found. The total reflects 14 trips sponsored by organizations including the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, the J Street Education Fund a...
In an historic medical breakthrough, doctors in Israel's Clalit Health Services -Schneider Children's Medical Center, became the first in the world to treat a baby born with a fatal genetic brain disorder by injecting a healthy gene directly into his brain, in a pioneering effort that united an Israeli physician, an Arab scientist and the Israeli-born CEO of an American biotech company in a race to save the life of an eight-month-old ultra-Orthodox infant. The treatment was performed at...
(JNS) - Top Israeli architects and planning teams spent five action-packed hours in Beersheva learning about the Jewish National Fund-USA's ambitious plans for the World Zionist Village, a transformative center for Zionist education, leadership, innovation, community-building and lifelong engagement with the land and people of Israel. When completed, the 48,000-square-meter global hub in the growing Negev city will host the Alexander Muss High School, an English-language high school for...
(JNS) - Israel on Sunday, June 7, marked the 59th anniversary on the Gregorian calendar of its capture of eastern Jerusalem and reunification of the capital during the 1967 Six-Day War. June 7, 1967, marked the day "the Jewish people returned to the heart of their ancient capital," according to an Israeli Foreign Ministry X post. It described the reunification of the holy city as a moment of "historic joy and liberation." The MFA's statement highlighted the significance of Jerusalem in Jewish...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces struck military targets in western and central Iran early Monday after the Islamic Republic launched ballistic missile barrages at the Jewish state overnight. The military said the Israeli Air Force, guided by Military Intelligence, carried out strikes on military targets belonging to the Iranian regime. IAF fighter jets "completed a large-scale strike on strategic defense systems," according to a statement. "Recently, defense systems were deployed in numerous...
(JNS) — As Israel prepared to mark the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War on June 7, the Tower of David Jerusalem Museum is asking the public to help uncover a visual record of one of Judaism’s most cherished sites—the Western Wall. The museum has launched a nationwide appeal for photographs, postcards and other visual materials documenting the Kotel from the earliest days of photography through 1968, ahead of a major exhibition to open in 2027, on the 60th anniversary of the war. The exhibition, titled “Eyes on the Wall,” will be t...
(JNS) — Iran and its regional terrorist proxies fired more than two dozen ballistic missiles at Israel overnight on Sunday and into Monday, sending millions of civilians running for bomb shelters. An Israeli military official told reporters on Monday that 22 ballistic missiles were launched by Tehran overnight, in addition to two projectiles fired by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists. As of Monday morning, 44 people had sustained injuries in the attacks, according to Israel’s Healt...
(JNS) — Israel “hit back” after Iran targeted it with missiles, U.S. President Donald Trump emphasized early on Tuesday, saying that he “can’t blame” Jerusalem for retaliating against the Islamic Republic. Trump told reporters after attending the NBA Finals in New York City that he had a “very good conversation” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the latest flare-up in hostilities. “He hit back, and I can’t blame him for that,” said the president. “Now they’ve called it quits, so they’re going to just leave each other al...
(JNS) - HAIFA, Israel-"You're from the Jewish school?" the French Ministry of Education official quizzed the teenage girl who had come for her post-high school baccalaureate exam. The examiner began firing off the most difficult questions on the physics test, seemingly seeking to trip up the high school senior, but Noa Uziel, 18, who was at the top of her class at Paris's Yabne school, stood her ground. "Are you going to cry?" the Education Ministry official pressed her. "I am the one who...
Almost half of American Jews under 35 say the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be solved by creating a single country in Israel, the “West Bank” and Gaza with a government elected by both Israelis and Palestinians, according to a poll conducted by the Jewish Voter Resource Center. The findings signal a generational shift in U.S. support for a binational state in Israel, reflecting a core demand of anti-Zionist protests on college campuses and beyond — even as most major Jewish organizations classify calls for a single state as an expre...
(JNS) — Members of NGO Monitor, an Israel-based research institute, signed an open letter on Sunday calling for an independent investigation of The New York Times following its publishing of an opinion column alleging Israeli authorities sexually assaulted Palestinian security prisoners. The column, penned by Nicholas Kristof, drew a flurry of criticism worldwide, culminating in the recent United Nation’s decision to place Israel on a list of parties suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict. The members of NGO Monitor’s Inter...
(JNS) — Israel controls approximately 60% of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. He added that he has instructed the Israel Defense Forces to expand that figure to 70% as part of its ongoing campaign against Hamas. Speaking at the Jordan Valley Conference, Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to increase pressure on the terrorist organization nearly three years after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. “Israel controls 60 percent of the Gaza Strip,” the prime minister said. “My directi...
(JNS) - "Obviously, the first thing you want to do is try to understand what she went through. I still don't know half of it. When she's older, I might be able to ask her." For Tom Hand, father of former Hamas hostage Emily Hand, the questions surrounding his daughter's 50 days in captivity remain largely unanswered. Yet nearly three years after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, he says the 11-year-old has shown remarkable resilience as she rebuilds her life and prepares to return home. On the...
(JNS) — During a visit with Defense Minister Israel Katz to the IDF’s 96th Division along Israel’s eastern border on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel’s enemies are seeking to infiltrate the country. “We take into account that our enemies want to invade the State of Israel, and therefore we rely on you,” Netanyahu told commanders and soldiers stationed in the area. Netanyahu and Katz toured one of the upgraded “water-line outposts” along the Jordan frontier and received briefings from IDF officers on effort...
(JNS) — “All I wanted was to dance. I went dancing and almost didn’t come home to my son,” Rita Yedid told JNS on Monday. On Oct. 7, 2023, as Hamas terrorists stormed the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on the Gaza border, Yedid hid in a ticket-booth caravan with her sister Eden; her husband, Guy; and three other partygoers. Guy was shot and wounded while shielding her from Hamas gunfire. Around 11:30 a.m., a terrorist looked through the caravan window, threatened the group and stole their phones and money. All six were rescued l...
