Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump and adviser in his first administration, held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon. A picture distributed by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office showed that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer joined for the Israeli side, while Kushner was accompanied by Aryeh Lightstone, a senior adviser to Trump's special Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner touched down in Tel Aviv on Sunday...
(JNS) - Gal Pauker, 25, grew up around wine. His grandfather, Gideon Pauker, and three of Gideon's buddies-Gadi Mozes, Haim Perry and Yoram Metzger-started a winery on Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, where they filled about 1,300 bottles a year with fine wine. It was a joint effort: Gideon planted the vineyard that supplied the grapes, and the friends would harvest together, choose the blend together, and enjoy the wine together. Then Hamas terrorists attacked the kibbutz on Oct. 7, 2023. Of...
(JNS) — Archaeologists in Israel’s Jezreel Valley have discovered the country’s oldest known winepress and other Canaanite items in Tel Meggido, where groundwork on a new road unearthed the artifacts, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Wednesday. The winepress, which is 5,000 years old, and other items found “instruct us about everyday domestic Canaanite worship taking place outside Tel Megiddo,” said the IAA. The finds will be displayed at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of the Land of Israel in...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces is preparing plans for “a renewed occupation of Gaza and the dismantling of Hamas,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Jerusalem’s Security Cabinet, told JNS on Monday. “We will be ready,” Smotrich said, speaking with JNS following a faction meeting of his Religious Zionism Party at the Knesset. “Now we have no hostages there and there are far fewer restrictions: fast, sharp, resolute,” he said. President Donald Trump “often used the word ‘violent,’ so I like that word,” Smotrich conti...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar reiterated on Monday that Jerusalem will not accept the inclusion of Turkish armed forces in President Donald Trump’s International Stabilization Force for the Gaza Strip. “Countries that want or are ready to send armed forces should be at least fair to Israel,” Sa’ar declared at a news conference in Budapest, speaking alongside his Hungarian counterpart, according to Reuters. “Turkey, led by [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, led a hostile approach against Israel,” the top diplomat stated. “So it...
(JNS) — Hundreds of Jewish community leaders from across the globe will gather in Jerusalem next week for a meeting of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors, focusing on reconstruction and rehabilitation plans for northern and southern Israel in the wake of the country’s multi-front war over the past two years. The meeting, held on Nov. 2-4, discussed programs to encourage Jews to immigrate to Israel and to combat growing antisemitism worldwide, the Jewish Agency said in a statement on Thursday. J.A. Executive Chairman Maj. Gen....
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it is providing aid to minority communities in southern Syria. “As part of efforts to restore stability to southern Syria, the United States is providing humanitarian assistance to Suwayda, where Druze, Christian and Bedouin communities have faced violence, the destruction of their homes and have lost their livelihoods,” the department stated. “This assistance will support life-saving needs of approximately 60,000 people through targeted provision of food, water, and hygiene items,...
(JNS) - Thousands of Israelis paid their last respects to Israel Defense Forces Col. Asaf Hamami on Tuesday at the Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery in Tel Aviv, two days after his body was released from Gaza by Hamas. Hamami, who commanded the Southern Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces' Gaza Division, was killed defending Kibbutz Nirim from the Hamas-led terrorist invasion on Oct. 7, 2023. He became the most senior officer to have been taken hostage during the massacre. His remains were held...
(JNS) — As Israel continues to seek renewal and unity more than two years after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, a growing number of Jewish Israelis are turning to Shabbat as a source of strength and spiritual connection, according to South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein. “There’s a spiritual revolution happening in Israel, an outpouring of people wanting a deeper connection to Shabbat, and we’re feeling it on the ground with this year’s record participation in the Shabbat Project across the country,” Goldstein told JNS. The Shabbat Project, l...
(JNS) — Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen said on Monday that Israel should demand policy concessions from Western countries in exchange for the life-saving intelligence it provides them. Cohen spoke at the second Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center conference in New York, marking the first time a senior Israeli official has proposed adopting such a policy. At the conference, Cohen revealed cases during his tenure when the Mossad shared life-saving intelligence, including with Australia. “We gave the Australians probably one of the most critical int...
(JNS) — Israeli security forces on Tuesday enlisted the help of ZAKA’s Diving Unit in the ongoing search for the cellular phone of Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, Israel’s former military advocate general, now behind bars. ZAKA, an emergency response nonprofit, sent personnel to Tel Aviv’s Cliff Beach in a large-scale effort to locate the phone. They are covering an area up to 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from where Tomer-Yerushalmi was eventually located. Even if the phone is never found, cyber experts say some of the material, such as applica...
(JNS) — Speaking at “The Future of Judea and Samaria” conference at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Rawan Osman, who has described herself as an Arab Zionist, said that despite breaking away from her antisemitic upbringing, there was one question she “avoided like the plague.” And that was what she thought about “West Bank” settlements. “I used to say: ‘I am not a journalist, not a politician, not Israeli—don’t ask me,’” Osman said. “Until I was invited for a tour in Judea and Samaria. I sat down near a water spring and a pomegran...
(JNS) — According to Michael Fertik, a pioneer in digital reputation management, the Israeli tech scene has matured into one of the world’s most dynamic and, despite regional challenges, now is the right time to invest in the Jewish state. “The internet is a wonderful tool, but it also has a long memory,” Fertik told JNS during his recent visit to Israel, his eighth since Oct. 7, 2023, in a studio interview on Oct 30. “People deserve second chances—and so do countries. Israel’s reputation as a tech powerhouse remains strong, but I believe its n...
A municipal ballot proposal to divest from Israel went before a popular vote for the first time on Tuesday — and pulled off a decisive victory. Question 3 won more than 55 percent of the vote in unofficial election results in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts, as the Israel-divestment movement saw the elevation of its most well-known proponent in politics — Zohran Mamdani — to mayor of New York City. Local pro-Palestinian activists claimed victory, with Somerville for Palestine — the group that gathered the signatures required to p...
(JNS) — The Israeli military said that the National Institute of Forensic Medicine had identified the remains of Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch and notified relatives that the bodies were returned for burial. Cooper, whom Hamas terrorists kidnapped alive from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he lived, on Oct. 7, was killed in captivity at age 84. He leaves behind a wife, four children and 11 grandchildren, the Israel Defense Forces said. Baruch was abducted alive from his Kibbutz Be’eri home on Oct. 7, and Hamas terrorists killed him in captivity on Dec...
(JNS) — Speaking on “The Future of Judea and Samaria” at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Mindy McAlindon, a Republican state representative of Arkansas, emphasized the spiritual and moral bonds linking the United States and Israel. The conference was sponsored by American Friends of Judea & Samaria and the Jewish News Syndicate. She described the U.S.-Israel relationship as founded not only on policy but on “faith, on trust and on friendship.” McAlindon said both nations share a belief that “light can overcome darkness and faith c...
(JNS) - Zaziwe and Zamaswazi (Swazi) Dlamini-Manaway, the granddaughters of South Africa's legendary leader, Nelson Mandela, have told JNS that while their visit to Israel and Gaza in September had been strictly humanitarian, it was also "life-changing." The two sisters, whose mother, Zenani MandelaDlamini, was the second daughter of Mandela's second wife, Winnie, met Israeli President Isaac Herzog, toured Yad Vashem and Jerusalem's Old City, and visited areas in southern Israel devastated by...
(JNS) - Ditza Or, mother of Avinatan Or, who survived 738 days in Hamas captivity, said on Wednesday that the Jewish people stand at a historic crossroads. "Now is the time to advance the national dream of the people of Israel, the fulfillment of divine prophecy and the ultimate redemption of all humanity," Or said in an address to "The Future of Judea and Samaria" conference in Jerusalem. She described her son's return as part of the current ceasefire with Hamas as "a wondrous miracle."...
(JNS) — A new joint command center established by the United States military’s Central Command in the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat in recent days to help manage the future of the Gaza Strip is described by former Israeli military officers as an “unprecedented” development in external involvement in the affairs of the Strip. The Civil-Military Coordination Center houses hundreds of personnel. The three-story structure includes a first floor designated as for Israeli security personnel only (a secure area for officials from the IDF, Foreign...
(JNS) — The Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, can be traced back to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, Amichai Chikli, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, stated on Wednesday evening. “There is a direct line between the withdrawal from Gaza to the disaster of Oct. 7,” Chikli said in remarks at The Future of Judea and Samaria conference at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, sponsored by the American Friends of Judea & Samaria and the Jewish News Syndica...
(JNS) — Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi submitted her letter of resignation to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir at a meeting on Friday. Her resignation came after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he intended to fire her. “In light of the severity of the suspicions and the sensitivity of the role of the [Military Advocate General] in charge of enforcing the law and setting legal norms throughout the IDF, the Minister of Defense intends to begin the process of appointing a new Military Adv...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — After the initial euphoria over the return by Hamas of 20 living Israeli hostages and the outrage at the terrorist organization for handing over only a fraction of the deceased hostages, talks on the next steps to end the war in Gaza are advancing. Before moving to the next stage of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, ending the first stage is required, namely the return of all deceased hostages, 24 in total. Hamas already said last week that it would have difficulty locating all the deceased, since some wer...
(JNS) — In an interview with “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl that aired on Oct. 19, White House envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff recounted the chronology of events that led to the hostage-for-ceasefire deal that Israel and Hamas signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Oct. 9. Kushner said their approach was rooted in “pragmatic realism,” which he defined as preventing wars through strength and making deals instead of lecturing the world. The focus, he said, was on shared interests over shared values, working with other nations where goa...
(JNS) - The Gaza ceasefire agreement faced its most deadly challenge yet on Sunday following an unprovoked attack by Hamas in southern Gaza that killed two IDF personnel-a company commander and a soldier from the Nahal Infantry Brigade-and severely wounded a third soldier. Hamas conducted at least two other attacks on Sunday as well. A military official, speaking to reporters on Sunday, stated that some of the IDF personnel targeted in the attacks were working on dismantling tunnel...
(JNS) — Documents obtained by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza strip show substantial cooperation between Hamas and Al Jazeera, according to a report published on Monday. That coordination extended to the existence of a secure phone line between the terrorist group’s military emergency operations room and the Qatari news agency. “Qatar’s Al Jazeera gives Hamas a propaganda and psychological warfare platform. Hamas operatives, from rocket launchers to hostage takers, work for Al Jazeera. Terror propaganda is not journalism,” Israel’s...
