Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The way to prevent the Iranian regime from buying itself more time and securing enough funds to rebuild its nuclear program is to “double down on secondary sanctions, with shipping, so they can’t do their illicit oil sales,” according to Sandra Hagee Parker, chair of the CUFI Action Fund. “Now that they have been brought to their knees, we must put their face to the pavement,” Hagee Parker told JNS. “Now is not the time to let up off the gas.” On Tuesday, thousands of attendees of Christians United for Israel’s 20th annual Washington...
(JNS) — The U.S. military’s recent airstrike under Operation Midnight Hammer has delayed Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, according to a new Pentagon assessment. Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told reporters Wednesday that intelligence assessments continue to confirm the significant damage inflicted on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. “We have degraded their program by at least one to two years—intel assessments inside the [Defense] Department assess that…. I think we’re probably closer to two years,” Parnell stated. T...
“It’s in the open, he doesn’t accept my position, he wants a deal,” Ben-Gvir said during a faction meeting of his Otzma Yehudit Party at the Knesset on Monday afternoon, adding, “I think that’s a big mistake. “We have a disagreement on this subject. We agree on many things — we agreed about [the targeted killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, we agreed about Iran, we agreed on many things. On this subject, he does not agree with me,” the Cabinet minister told JNS. Netanyahu landed at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on Mon...
(JNS) — The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said on Wednesday that intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear program was “severely damaged” during the 12-day war with Israel. “CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” according to a statement attributed to agency director John Ratcliffe. “This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source indicating that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would...
(JNS) — In the aftermath of the direct war between Israel and Iran, the United States is attempting to actively leverage the perceived weakness of Hezbollah’s patron to push for a tangible disarmament process in Lebanon. The American framework, described by international media reports as a “step-for-step” plan, links a potential Israeli withdrawal from disputed border points to the Lebanese Armed Forces taking control of Hezbollah’s remaining arsenal of illegal weapons. This diplomatic initiative is unfolding in a new regional environment. The...
(JNS) — All 14 Jews the Iranian regime arrested have been released, Iranian opposition activists and journalists told JNS, after news reports last week that the Islamic Republic arrested some 600 people across the country after an announced ceasefire between Iran and Israel. Rosa Parto, an Iranian-Israeli journalist based in Israel, told JNS that a “reliable source,” a Muslim man who works in the Iranian government and is “unfriendly to the regime,” told her that no Jews were arrested in Tehran. “All 14 Jews, who were arrested in the cities...
(JNS) — Israeli fighter jets struck the entrance gate of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on Monday, according to Iranian opposition media and Israeli officials. Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the operation as part of a broader campaign targeting “governmental repression bodies in the heart of Tehran.” Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing that the Israeli Air Force was “intensifying strikes” in the capital area. The Israeli military described the attack on the prison as “symbolic....
Following a directive from Israel’s political echelon, the Israel Defense Forces launched what it described as a preemptive, precise and combined offensive codenamed “Operation Rising Lion” in the early hours of Friday, targeting Iran’s nuclear program and other military targets across the Islamic Republic, as well as, reportedly, senior Iranian military and Islamic Republican Guards Corps commanders. The decision was, according to a defense official, signed off on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, i...
(JNS) — The Islamic Republic will reject any nuclear agreement that aims to curb its “peaceful activities,” Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday, referring to its uranium enrichment efforts, while demanding assurances from the United States that sanctions will be lifted. “Iran has a peaceful nuclear programme. … we are prepared to provide this assurance to any party or entity,” AFP quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying. Uranium enrichment remains a major issue in negotiations with the United States that have been ongoing...
(JNS) Following a directive from Israel’s political echelon, the Israel Defense Forces launched what it described as a preemptive, precise and combined offensive codenamed “Operation Rising Lion” in the early hours of Friday, targeting Iran’s nuclear program and other military targets across the Islamic Republic, as well as, reportedly, senior Iranian military and Islamic Republican Guards Corps commanders. The decision was, according to a defense official, signed off on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel...
(JNS) — Please see details of the proposal on this website. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel has accepted U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s hostage release proposal. However, Hamas says the plan is biased in favor of Israel and demands changes. Speaking to bereaved families of hostages, Netanyahu said Israel has agreed to a plan that would release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 deceased captives during a 60-day ceasefire. However, Witkoff confirmed Saturday night that Hamas has effectively rejected the...
(JNS) - At the 2023 Palestine Book Awards ceremony, the winner of the "Counter Current Award" category was the volume "Imagining Palestine," which concerns itself with a topic referred to as "cultures of exile and national identity." Oddly enough, it has a very Jewish ring to it. The book highlights that "all national identities are somewhat fluid, held together by collective beliefs and practices as much as official territory and borders" and that "the articulation and 'imagination' of...
(JNS) — Jordanian textbooks justify the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre and promote antisemitism and violent jihad, marking a troubling decline in the Hashemite Kingdom’s educational standards, an international think tank reported Monday. A study by the London-based watchdog IMPACT-se found that nearly 300 textbooks used in the 2023–2025 curriculum “promote antisemitism, glorify violent jihad, and express strong hostility toward homosexuality.” At the same time, and somewhat contradictorily, the materials also “generally advocate concepts of r...
(JNS) — Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday advanced a bill to designate Qatar as a “terror-supporting state,” clearing the way for the coalition proposal to be put to a preliminary vote in the Knesset. The bill, initiated by Likud lawmakers Moshe Saada and Dan Illouz, Otzma Yehudit’s Yitzhak Kroizer and Michal Woldiger of the Religious Zionism Party, advances as the Israeli negotiating team continues to pursue a hostage agreement with Hamas in Doha, where senior leadership of the terrorist organization has long been host...
The Hamas terror organization launched its deadly invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in order to foil a possible peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, May 17, citing internal Hamas documents recovered by the Israeli military. According to Saturday’s report, the IDF discovered records from a high-level meeting of Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 2, 2023, during which Yahya Sinwar, the late chief of Hamas forces in Gaza, warned that Riyadh and Jerusalem were nearing a normalization a...
(JNS) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the chances of a breakthrough in negotiations with the United States over Iran’s nuclear program are slim, accusing the U.S. administration of making “nonsense statements.” “The Islamic Republic does not believe that the current negotiations with America will yield positive results, and no one knows what will follow,” he said at a ceremony commemorating former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who both died in a helicopter crash in Ma...
(JNS) — Five tiny figurines — including black wood-carved heads depicting African figures — have been uncovered in Israel’s Negev Desert, offering rare insight into unexpected cultural connections in the region some 1,500 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced. The statuettes were discovered in 2017 during an excavation at Tel Malhata in the Arad Valley, in graves belonging to women and children. The findings date to the Byzantine period and suggest trade or cultural ties that extended far beyond the immediate region. The res...
This year, more than ever, it's impossible not to think about the execution of my best friend, Shirin Alamhooli, on May 9, 2010. I met Shirin in Iran's notorious Evin Prison where I had been arrested and sentenced to death by hanging because of converting to Christianity, a "crime" the Islamic regime calls "apostasy" and which carries a death penalty. I was arrested in March 2009. Shirin had already been in prison for some time as a political Kurdish prisoner. As a Christian, I had many people...
(JTA) — A Palestinian poet and essayist who evacuated Gaza with his family and chronicled the experience of dislocation for the New Yorker has won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Mosab Abu Toha left Gaza in December 2023 — after being detained by Israeli soldiers, in an experience he chronicled in his writing — and moved in 2024 to Syracuse, New York, after receiving a visa permitting him to teach at Syracuse University. The Pulitzer committee recognized four essays by Abu Toha: one exploring his memories of a now-destroyed landscape; o...
(JNS) — Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas recently claimed that the First and Second Jewish temples were in Yemen, not Jerusalem, citing the Quran. Not only does all reputable archeological research locate the temples in Jerusalem, but the Quran does not assert that they were in Yemen. So much for Abbas’s “facts.” The Palestinian narrative claiming rights to “Palestine” is based almost entirely on deceitful attempts to nullify deep Jewish connections to the region. Lacking any evidence of Palestinian peoplehood earlier than the 20th ce...
This is the final consideration, with conclusions presented. To avoid confusion, the term West Bank will be used here when referring to Judea and Samaria. Israel’s Obligation to a Two-State Solution Israel’s four most influential prime ministers were possessed of differing personalities, political philosophies, and security challenges. They were consistent in recognition of the Palestinian National Identity that required geographic commitment to self-governance and political consequence. However, any implementation must be subject to the sac...
(JNS) — A fourth round of talks between Tehran’s envoys and Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s lead negotiator, did not take place in Rome over the weekend as had been expected. Neither Tehran’s spokesmen nor the State Department gave a clear explanation for why, but I’ll venture a guess: Iran’s rulers want concessions in exchange for continuing to talk. They think Trump needs negotiations more than they do. Their assessment is based on years of palaver with presidents Obama and Biden. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hopes that,...
(JNS) — Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas claimed that in the Quran, the Jewish Temple is described as being in Yemen. “In the Noble Quran, and I believe that also in other divine books, it says that the [First and Second] Temples were in Yemen,” said Abbas on April 23 in a televised speech during the 32nd PLO Central Council meeting in Ramallah. He made the remarks in the context of his claim that Israeli authorities were targeting Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is built on the Temple Mount, where the Jewish Temple used to stand....
Hamas has released Edan Alexander, an American-Israeli citizen, back to Israel under a deal reached with the United States. The release, conducted Monday evening in Gaza, may inaugurate a new phase in the hostage crisis that has consumed Israel since Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, taking 250 captives and opening the war in Gaza. “I’m very happy to announce that Edan Alexander, an American citizen who until recently most thought was no longer living, thought was dead, is going to be rel...
(JNS) — Tal Shoham, who was freed from Gaza as part of the hostage deal with Hamas on Feb. 22, revealed that the terrorists had called his wife, freed during previous ceasefire, and threatened to kill him if she talked about her own experiences in captivity. Adi Shoham was taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre alongside her two young children. They were released after 50 days in captivity as part of the first ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group. Tal Shoham, a 40-year-old Israeli with dual Austrian citizenship, was abducted f...
