Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(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...
(JNS) — For years, the Palestinian Authority has rewarded terrorism through its “pay-to-slay” stipends—monthly salaries for Palestinians who murder Jews and for the families of “martyrs,” including suicide bombers. Some of the killers recently freed in Israel’s hostage exchanges have even become millionaires. That morally bankrupt model is now being replicated inside the United States. Hamas’s supporters here have created their own incentive system—this time to reward anti-Israel activism on American campuses. The California chapter of the Co...
(JNS) — A group of middle school parents in the Binyamin community of Beit El in southern Samaria kept their children home from school on Sunday, as the school and its outdoor sports courts are located near a construction site where approximately 50 Palestinian Authority workers arrive each day. They sent a message of protest to municipal and school officials that changes are needed before they can confidently allow their children to attend classes. Some parents have indicated that they may keep their children home again if security at the s...
(JNS) — Saad Almadi, 75, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen detained in Saudi Arabia since 2021, is on his way back to Florida, coinciding with U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House meetings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Almadi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who moved to the United States in 1976, had traveled to Saudi Arabia to visit family and manage personal property. Upon arriving in Riyadh, he was detained and questioned about social media posts he had made from his home in Boca Raton that were critical of the Saudi government. One...
(JNS) - Israeli authorities have rearrested a Palestinian terrorist released from prison a few months ago as part of a hostage deal with Hamas, the Israel Police Spokesperson's Unit said on Thursday. He was taken into custody on suspicion of bomb-making. Detectives from the Judea District Crime Fighting Unit and National Counterterrorism Unit officers from the Shai (Judea and Samaria) District raided his Bethlehem home on Wednesday night and detained him for questioning. The terrorist was...
(JNS) — Israeli forces overnight Wednesday carried out a sweeping counterterrorism operation across Judea and Samaria, seizing weapons and arresting suspected terrorists linked to recent attacks, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement. Guided by Shin Bet intelligence, IDF troops searched more than 70 locations, finding weapons concealed inside residences, including a “Carlo” submachine gun hidden in a microwave and a hunting rifle stashed behind a curtain, according to the military. At the same time, soldiers launched a major opera...
(JNS) - The body returned to Israel on Tuesday from Gaza has been identified as that of Dror Or, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said. The identification was completed in coordination with the National Center for Forensic Medicine, the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate. "The Government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Or family and all the families of the abducted fallen," said the PMO. "The IDF expresses deep condolences to the families, continues to make every effort to...
(JNS) — In the hours leading up to the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous vote, 13 to 0, on Monday to approve a U.S.-drafted resolution endorsing Washington’s 20-point plan for Gaza, experts told JNS that Israelis worry about the plan’s “pathway” to Palestinian statehood. Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, stated that the “deterioration” was due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “silence,” and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli national security minister, stated that his party would not be part of any governmen...
(JNS) — Hamas had closely followed 100,000 Israeli troops on social media and other networks for years before executing the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, meticulously collecting information about Israel Defense Forces posts along the border, including how to operate Israeli tanks, Israel’s Army Radio correspondent Doron Kadosh reported on Sunday. The terrorist organization established an array of some 2,500 members who took part in gathering data online, piece by piece, for five years before the attacks on the northwestern Negev, according to Kad...
(JNS) — Iranian state television on Monday for the first time ever aired a program with Hebrew subtitles, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting outlet. “Toward the Horizon of Palestine,” which began airing on IRIB‘s Ofogh channel in the days after the Hamas massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, included Hebrew subtitles for the first time on Monday evening. After Tehran “realized that ‘Toward the Horizon of Palestine’ is being monitored in the occupied territories, starting last night, we began broadcasting the news in H...
(JNS) — A new survey by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) finds overwhelming Israeli opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The poll, conducted Nov. 16–17 by Dr. Menachem Lazar among 698 Jewish and Arab Israelis (±3.7 percent), finds 70 percent of Israelis oppose creating a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines—the highest level recorded by the Center since the war began. Among Jewish Israelis, opposition stands at 79 percent. Only 8 percent of respondents support a Palestinian state uncond...
(JNS) — Israel’s flagship carrier, El Al, posted another record quarterly profit on Tuesday, continuing to benefit from strong demand and raking in historic returns as major foreign airlines resumed flights to Israel amid a lull in the war against Hamas in Gaza. The airline, which operated almost continuously throughout the war, reported earnings of $203 million between July and September—an 8 percent increase from $187 million during the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose more than 7 percent to $1.07 billion, up from $1 billion in the c...
(JNS) — One of the anti-Israel founders of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s is striking out on his own over a politically charged frozen treat. Ben Cohen announced on Tuesday that he is making a watermelon-flavored sorbet with a theme of “peace in Palestine.” He said that parent company Unilever and its ice cream spinoff, Magnum, “stopped Ben & Jerry’s from creating a flavor for Palestine.” “I’m doing what they couldn’t,” Cohen said, sharing a video of himself crushing watermelons into juice. “I’m making a watermelon-flavored ice c...
(JNS) — The war against Hamas in Gaza isn’t over, because the Islamic terror group will not willingly give up its weapons, Israeli Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Avi Dichter said on Wednesday. The blunt comments by the senior Israeli minister, a former head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and a member of the Security Cabinet, come amid increasing Israeli concerns regarding the second stage of the U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan. “The war is not ended; it is a ceasefire to prepare ourselves [for] the next stage,” Dichter sa...
(JNS) — The International Committee of the Red Cross has decried a “recovery” that Hamas staged of hostage remains in Gaza and called it “unacceptable,” but the Israeli Foreign Ministry accused the organization being complicit in the charade. “We appreciate the Red Cross condemnation of Hamas’s staged ‘burials’ and ‘discoveries’ of hostage bodies, which they previously extracted from Hamas holding sites,” the Israeli ministry stated on Wednesday. “There seems to be a gap between what the Red Cross office knows and reality, given footage of...
(JNS) — Concerned residents and officials from towns and municipalities in Judea and Samaria are weighing their options following a Nov. 2 District Court decision, overturning a previous ruling that allowed the Ariel Municipality to bar certain Palestinian Authority workers from entering the city based on security concerns. An Ariel municipal spokesperson told JNS that the ruling was a “catastrophe” from a security perspective, saying the city must now prepare for an influx of Palestinian Arab workers. He explained that until now, Ariel Mayor...
(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....
