Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Syrian President Bashar Assad has fled the country after a coalition of rebel groups stormed Damascus, ending his family's five-decade rule over the Arab Republic, Reuters reported on Sunday morning. Syria's army command notified officers on Sunday that the regime had fallen, an officer who was informed of the move told the press agency. A Syrian airplane took off from Damascus International Airport as the capital was being taken by the rebels. Reuters said it could not immediately...
(JNS) —The Netherlands’ House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a motion that calls for shuttering extremist mosques whose leaders preach the destruction of Israel. The motion submitted by the leader of the coalition’s Farmer–Citizen Movement, titled “The closure of Salafist mosques and institutions that preach the destruction of the Jewish people and Israel,” passed 91-58. “Noting that antisemitism and incitement to antisemitism are increasing, and this has led to a Jew-hunt, calls on the government to close Salafist mosques and instituti...
(JNS) — In his first speech since being appointed Hezbollah leader earlier this week, Naim Qassem on Wednesday vowed to continue the path of his slain predecessor Hassan Nasrallah. “What is my plan? A continuation of my predecessor’s. We will carry on with the war program as it has been outlined so far,” Qassem said in the televised speech, according to a translation by Lebanon’s L’Orient Le Jour daily. Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Sept. 27 after heading the Iranian-backed terrorist group for more than 30 years, rema...
(JNS) - Hundreds of Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria gathered in protest at intersections throughout the territory on Sept. 3, demanding that the army launch a broad operation against Palestinian terrorism. The rallies, called by the Yesha Council that represents the interests of the 500,000 or so Jews of Judea and Samaria, marked the first time that the group led mass protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government since its inception in December 2022. "The...
(JNS) — The Palestinian Authority is circulating a draft resolution asking the United Nations General Assembly to urge Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria and remove some 500,000 Israeli citizens living in the territory within six months. According to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 on Sunday, the resolution, which cites a July 19 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, is expected to be brought to a vote next week. The 79th Session of the U.N. General Assembly was scheduled to open on Sept. 10. In add...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received bursts of applause and frequent standing ovations-often from both sides of the aisle-as he delivered an address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday afternoon. In his remarks, which ran about an hour, Netanyahu praised the longevity and closeness of the U.S.-Israeli relationship; called for a decisive victory over the Hamas terror group; and urged the United States to help defeat the Iranian regime that, he said,...
(JNS) - Nearly 350 Hamas terrorists, including 100 members of the terror group's elite Nukhba Force, managed to infiltrate Kibbutz Be'eri in southern Israel on Oct. 7 due to catastrophic failures by the Israel Defense Forces in their readiness and response, according to the first part of the IDF's internal probe of the attacks. "The IDF had difficulty creating a clear picture of what was happening in the kibbutz until the afternoon hours of Oct. 7, even though the yishuv emergency team had an...
(JNS) — The Hamas terror group has agreed to a hostages-for-ceasefire framework and mediators are negotiating the details and implementation, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday night, July 10. The Post‘s David Ignatius said that though the framework is in place, officials warned that a final agreement is unlikely to be imminent as the details of the deal are complex and will take time to work through. One U.S. official suggested that Hamas’s acquiescence to the terms was at least in part prompted by the fact that the terror group is in...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on Sunday night outlined Jerusalem's red lines in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations with the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. "The plan that has been agreed to by Israel and which has been welcomed by President Biden will allow Israel to return hostages without infringing on the other objectives of the war," according to the PMO. The statement also credited Netanyahu with pressuring Hamas into returning to the...
(JNS) — Washington has no “real disagreements” with Israel over its targeted raid in eastern Rafah and war aim of destroying the remaining Hamas battalions in Gaza’s southernmost city, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew claimed in an interview with Channel 12 on Sunday. The interview came just days after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed that the Biden administration decided to withhold approval of a sale to Israel of two types of precision-guided bombs. Biden also told CNN last week that he would stop providing weapons to the...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday urged the international community to confront Iran, as Jerusalem prepares a response to the Islamic Republic’s massive drone and missile attack over the weekend. “The whole world must work decisively and defiantly against the threat posed by the Iranian regime, which is seeking to undermine the stability of the entire region,” Herzog said after meeting the foreign ministers of Britain and Germany in Jerusalem. Herzog reiterated the Jewish state’s “unequivocal” commitment to defending its...
(JNS) — Incoming Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa vowed on Tuesday to appoint a cabinet that can “gain both the trust of our people and the support of the international community.” In a vision statement seen by the Associated Press, Mustafa promises to reunify Gaza with Judea and Samaria and establish an “internationally managed trust fund” to rebuild the Strip after the Israel Defense Forces operation against the Hamas terrorist organization there ends. Mustafa claims Ramallah aims to enact wide-ranging administr...
By (JNS) — Iran-backed terror groups are plotting to turn the Islamic holy month of Ramadan into the “second phase of Oct. 7” and set the Middle East on fire, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant charged on Tuesday. “The main goal of Hamas is to take Ramadan, with an emphasis on the Temple Mount and Jerusalem, and turn it into the second phase of their plan that began on Oct. 7. This is the main goal of Hamas, and it is being amplified by Iran and Hezbollah,” Gallant said following a situational assessment at the Israel Defense Forces’ C...
(JNS) — Israel will not agree to the “delusional demands” Hamas is making to release the 136 remaining hostages being held in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address on Feb. 7. Bowing to the terrorist organization’s demands will lead to another massacre and a “major disaster” that no Israeli citizen will accept, he emphasized, speaking from his office in Jerusalem. “We are on our way to total victory,” he declared. “Total victory over Hamas will not take years. It will take months. Victory is within reach....
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday set out the country’s core demands for ending the war against Hamas in Gaza. “The essential goal is, first of all, the elimination of Hamas. To achieve this goal, three things are needed,” Netanyahu told journalists ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv. “The first requirement is the collapse of Hamas’s battalions. To date, we have leveled 17 out of 24 battalions. Most of the remaining battalions are in the southern Gaza Strip and Rafah—we wi...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces will retain full security control over the Gaza Strip after the war with Hamas ends, giving it the freedom to operate there similarly to the way it currently does in Judea and Samaria, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Israeli lawmakers on Tuesday. “After the war, when it’s over, I think it’s completely clear that Hamas won’t control Gaza. Israel will control [it] militarily, but won’t control it in a civilian sense,” Gallant told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee dur...
(JNS) — As the Israel Defense Forces battles Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the country’s Judea, Samaria and Jordan Valley regions are experiencing a parallel rise in terror incidents, according to data published by Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) on Tuesday. Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 15, Rescuers Without Borders first responders recorded more than 2,600 attacks targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers, including 760 cases of rock-throwing, 551 fire bombings, 12 attempted or successful stabbings and nine vehicular assaults. Amo...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces will keep fighting in the Gaza Strip until Hamas’s “significant military and governing capabilities” are eliminated and the 130-plus hostages held captive by the terror group are returned, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday, mere days after announcing a significant reduction in military operations in Gaza. “If the fate of Hamas is not complete dismantlement, we will not be able to live in the State of Israel,” Gallant told members of the Israeli Navy’s Shayetet 13 naval commando unit...
(JNS) — The European Council, which represents the national governments of all 27 European Union member states, agreed on Tuesday to impose sanctions on Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar in response to the Islamist group’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel that claimed at least 1,200 lives and wounded thousands. The terrorist leader was already placed under sanctions by the United States and the United Kingdom in 2015 and 2023, respectively. Effective immediately, Sinwar will be “subject to the freezing of his funds and other financial asset...
(JNS) — Hamas’s network of terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip is even more extensive than previously thought, The New York Times cited senior Israeli defense officials as saying on Tuesday, with new assessments indicating it has upwards of 5,700 entry shafts. In the wake of intensive counterterror combat operations in the southern Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis during recent weeks, Israel now believes the Islamist group built between 350 and 450 miles of subterranean terror infrastructure, up from a previous estimate of 250 miles. While the fig...
(JNS) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed support for “tangible steps” towards the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip during a meeting with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday. Sources cited by Sky News Arabia described the tête-à-tête, during which Blinken also touched on “administrative reforms” in the P.A. that Washington would like to see, as “tense” and marked by “arguments.” Abbas reportedly demanded that Blinken push Israel to unconditionally release all tax...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces are investigating a possible terrorist tunnel that soldiers discovered near Jewish communities in the Hebron Hills in Judea. In a viral video shared to social media earlier this week, an IDF reservist claims that "after a long period in which residents of Telem and Adora in the West Hebron Hills heard digging noises," troops were sent to inspect Palestinian structures in the area of Khirbet Tayibe. "To our surprise, in addition to illegal construction, we found...
