Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 144
(JNS) — Israeli authorities on Tuesday began demolishing UNRWA’s headquarters in Jerusalem, after a new law banning the organization’s operations in Israel took effect. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir hailed the move as a “historic day, a holiday, a very important day for governance,” saying the government was finally expelling “terror supporters … with everything they built here” and vowing that “this is what will be done to every terror supporter.” Yisrael Beiteinu MK Yulia Malinovsky, who played a leading role in introducing the...
(JNS) — Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Israel’s minister for the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience, said Sunday that security agencies had identified attempts by Hezbollah to gain a foothold in Upper Galilee city of Kiryat Shmona through apartment purchases by Arab citizens of the Jewish state. “Hezbollah used Israeli Arabs to purchase apartments in Kiryat Shmona during the war in order to try to take control of the city from within,” the minister said behind closed doors at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, according to Hebrew media reports....
(JNS) — It feels necessary, due to political pressure, to accuse the Jewish state publicly of committing “genocide” in Gaza even though that charge is untrue, a New England legislator told JNS on background. “I don’t think that ‘genocide’ is a term that can be used in the moment, in the fog of war,” the legislator told JNS. But there has been “so much mounting pressure” after lawmakers in the legislator’s state began accusing Israel of “genocide,” the lawmaker said. “Nobody was going to engage with me, or even talk to me, or not just throw me i...
(JNS) — David Cunio, one of the Israelis abducted by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, gives a harrowing account of his nearly two years in Hamas captivity in Gaza, describing starvation, psychological torment, underground imprisonment and the struggle to survive for the sake of his family. In an interview aired on Channel 12, Cunio detailed his abduction alongside his wife, Sharon, their twin daughters Yuli and Emma, and other family members, as well as the brutal conditions he endured during 738 days in Hamas captivity. The ordeal began in t...
(JNS) — Former hostage Moran Stella Yanai called out U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, claiming he was not interested in hearing her claims of sexual violence while in Hamas captivity. Yanai was selling jewelry at the Nova Music Festival when she was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the group’s invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. She was held for 54 days before her release as part of a ceasefire. Yanai told Israel’s Channel 12 that she and fellow hostage Nili Margalit, a nurse taken from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and re...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that there would be no Turkish or Qatari troops deployed to Gaza as part of Phase 2 of the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan. Speaking at a Knesset debate on “violence and crime in the Arab sector” within Israel, Netanyahu acknowledged the dispute between his government and the Trump administration over the post-war management of Gaza. “We have a certain argument with our friends in the United States over the composition of the executive board that will oversee the proce...
(JNS) — It takes Wikipedia nearly 7,500 words into its main entry on China to mention the word “genocide,” tucked in a section on “sociopolitical issues and human rights,” and even then, the crowdsourced online encyclopedia hedges. “Since 2017, the Chinese government has been engaged in a harsh crackdown in Xinjiang, with around one million Uyghurs and other ethnic and religion minorities being detained in internment camps aimed at changing the political thinking of detainees, their identities and their religious beliefs, in what some described...
(JNS) — Imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti should be put to death over his leading role in the 2000-05 Second Intifada terrorist war against Israel, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said. “Marwan Barghouti should be taken out,” Ben-Gvir declared at a faction meeting of his Otzma Yehudit Party at the Knesset in Jerusalem, responding to a question from JNS about a petition by Alon Liel, a Reichman University lecturer and former Israeli diplomat, calling for the terrorist’s release. “Marwan Barghouti is a murderer, he is a terrori...
(JNS) — Just as countries must have borders to exist, the conservative movement needs to delineate what is beyond the pale, and the latter includes Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who has both denounced core conservative tenets of late and given voice to and failed to denounce antisemites and Holocaust deniers. That was one of the messages Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative commentator and Daily Wire cofounder, shared in a Dec. 17 book talk with Kevin Roberts, president of Heritage Foundation. Roberts has drawn criticism after f...
(JNS) — Representatives from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey met Friday in Miami to review implementation of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and to advance preparations for the next stage, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff confirmed on Saturday. Witkoff said the initial phase of the Trump administration-brokered deal had produced progress, including the return of all but one hostage, partial IDF troop withdrawals, a reduction in hostilities and expanded humanitarian assistance to Gaza. “In our discussions reg...
Possible regime change? The meeting this week between Netanyahu and Trump takes place as there are growing domestic protests against the Iranian regime. There is also a possibility that Israel’s Mossad may be involved in subversive efforts to bolster the opposition and convince Iran’s public to rise up against the fanatical clerics that have steered the country from a path of moderation, into a pariah state ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79. Trump acknowledged the protests but didn’t want to get into specifics of whether the regim...
(JNS) — As the Trump administration intensifies pressure to transition to “Phase 2” of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, potentially as early as January, observers in Israel see no sign of Hamas disarming as the terror organization reestablishes its fundamentalist, murderous regime over the 47 percent of Gaza that it controls. Despite multiple reports of international stabilization force preparations and Palestinian technocratic governments, the reality inside the Gaza Strip could not be more starkly different. Hamas is actively rebuilding its r...
(JNS) — An Israeli official on Friday participated in a meeting in Naqoura, Lebanon, aimed at ensuring the disarmament of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem confirmed. “During the meeting, ways to promote economic projects were discussed in order to underscore the mutual interest in removing the Hezbollah threat and ensuring sustainable security for residents on both sides of the border,” according to the statement. “The meeting is a continuation of the security dialogue aimed at ensuring...
(JNS) — The signing of the massive natural gas deal with Egypt goes far beyond its $34 billion price tag. One of the main reasons for the agreement’s delay was Egypt’s problematic approach to Israel on political and security issues. According to information gathered in recent years, Egypt has deployed forces in Sinai far beyond what is permitted under the security annex of the 1979 peace treaty. It has also built tunnels deep in the peninsula for storing weapons and has suspiciously extended runways at airfields. The understandings betwe...
(JNS) — If Hamas does not follow through with U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan that involves the terrorist group laying down arms, Israel “will have to deal with the problem,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in an interview with the Saudi state-owned channel Al Arabiya English on Wednesday. Israel’s top diplomat said he hopes the Islamist organization adheres to the plan, which both Israel and Hamas’s leadership agreed to, but that “unfortunately,” senior Hamas officials have issued public declarations saying that they have n...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Wednesday for his role in advancing the recent U.N. Security Council resolution that codified U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan. “I want to thank you for supporting Israel at the United Nations with clear moral clarity,” Herzog told Waltz during their meeting in Jerusalem, according to a statement from the president’s office. Herzog emphasized the need to secure the release of the last hostage, Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili. “F...
(JNS) - The dozens of posters of hostages that once greeted arrivals and departures at Ben-Gurion International Airport have disappeared except for one of the last hostages whose body remains in Gaza, Israel Police officer Ran Gvili. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Tuesday shared a photo of Gvili's younger sister Shira, who stopped by the lone picture of the fallen hostage at the airport. "Until about two months ago, there were dozens of pictures of hostages there, and today a single...
(JNS) — A small group of Israeli civilians entered the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening, calling on the government to establish a permanent Israeli presence there. The group, according to Channel 12 News numbering between seven and nine people, was “under constant monitoring” and was returned to Israeli territory shortly after crossing the border, according to the Israel Defense Forces. “The IDF emphasizes that any entrance to a combat zone is forbidden, endangers the civilians and disturbs IDF operations in the area. The civilia...
(JNS) - A traditional eight-branched candelabrum was installed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday ahead of the Chanukah festival, which begins on the evening of Dec. 14, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said. The bronze menorah, or chanukiyah, which measures some 6.5 by 6.5 feet, will be lit every evening during the eight-day holiday, which runs until Dec. 22, the foundation said in a statement. This year, the Chanukah festivities at Judaism's second-holiest site will be...
(JNS) — Construction work on Israel’s eastern security barrier along the border with Jordan has begun, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced on Monday. The initial stage will focus on the Beit She’an, Jezreel and Jordan Valleys, constructing the first two sections of the new barrier that will span roughly 50 miles, the ministry said. Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, “The new barrier will strengthen the communities along the border, significantly reduce weapons smuggling to terrorists in Judea and Samaria, and deal a heavy...
(JNS) — A section of Jerusalem’s city wall dating from the Hasmonean period more than two thousand years ago has been unearthed in the city’s Tower of David Museum, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. The wall was discovered during an excavation on the grounds of the museum, located just inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, adjacent to the citadel, within the historic complex known as the Kishle, the state-run archaeological body said. The newly uncovered section of the wall known in ancient historical sourc...
(JNS) — Israeli authorities on Thursday morning confirmed that the remains recovered from Hamas in the Gaza Strip the previous evening belong to murdered Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, whose body had been held captive since the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Authorities informed Suthdisak’s family that arrangements for returning his body to Thailand for burial will be made in coordination with the Thai Embassy in Israel. “The Israeli government shares the deep sorrow of the Rinthalak family, the Thai people and all the families of the slain abduc...
President Donald Trump said on Dec. 6 that his decision on that day in 2017 to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to begin the process of moving the U.S. embassy there was “a transformative step forward in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East.” “Today, eight years later, my administration renews its commitment to ushering in a new era of peace, prosperity and stability in the region and all around the world,” he stated. “Since the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948, Jerusalem has served as its cultural and religio...
(JNS) — Guinness World Records is no longer accepting submissions from Israel or the Palestinian territories, Jerusalem-based NGO “Matnat Chaim” said on Wednesday. The NGO, whose name means “Gift of Life” in Hebrew, helps people make voluntary kidney donations. It had contacted Guinness World Records regarding an event it is planning next month, which will bring together 2,000 Israeli kidney donors in the hope of having the gathering entered into the next Guinness Book of World Records. However, the British body informed the Israeli group two...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Seven hundred and ninety days after the deadliest massacre in Israel’s history, which led to the abduction of hundreds of civilians, Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili is now the last hostage still held in the Gaza Strip. Gvili, a 24-year-old Israel Police Special Patrol Unit (Yasam) volunteer from Meitar, fought with extraordinary courage on Oct. 7, 2023. When the massacre began, he left his house, put on his uniform and headed out to fight. About 10 days before he had broken his shoulder, and was waiting for surgery, yet he sti...
