Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Palestinians captured by the IDF in the Gaza Strip are angry about the way Hamas used civilians to protect themselves and would prefer Israeli rule as the soldiers have treated them better, according to recordings of interrogations released by the IDF. “I felt that we are human shields,” said Muhammad Darwish Amara, a terrorist from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization. “Why would we protect them? We also want to be saved.” The man, who looked to be in his 20s, said that Hamas forces had forced him and others to go with them instead...
Walmart’s philanthropic arm announced Friday that it would be sending Israel’s Red Cross $1 million in response to the “horrific and inhuman” Hamas attack on Israel October 7 that set off the ongoing war that Israel declared in order to destroy the terrorist organization. “As you all know, throughout these horrific and inhuman attacks by Hamas, Magen David Adom has played a critical role in providing medical aid to victims,” said the statement by the Walmart Foundation to is business associates....
Critics are slamming a New York Times reporter for her religious insensitivity in complaining that she had to stay on the women's side of the Western Wall when covering New York City Mayor Eric Adams' visit to the holy site Tuesday. Emma Fitzsimmons, City Hall bureau chief for the paper, posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, a picture of herself looking over the partition that separates male and female worshipers at the Wall, as per Orthodox Jewish tradition at a prayer site. She...
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blasted the White House Tuesday for authorizing the FBI to investigate the shooting death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a clash of Israeli soldiers with Palestinian terrorists in Jenin in May. “Joe Biden and his administration view Israel and Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu as political enemies, and so they are responding to them the way they respond to all their political enemies: by unleashing the FBI,” the Texan Republican said in a statement. “This outrage underscores how corrupt and blata...
With an overwhelming 152-5 majority, a UN committee devoted to world security called on Israel Friday to renounce its nuclear arsenal and put all its nuclear-related sites under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Disarmament and International Security Committee or First Committee) resolution, submitted annually by Egypt for years, demands that Israel join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even though Jerusalem never acknowledged possession of nuclear weapons. It is “important” that Israel sign onto the NPT “witho...
A major American Jewish organization objected Monday to Israel presenting U.S. President Joe Biden its Presidential Medal of Honor during his visit to the country Wednesday, saying that he does not deserve it. The stated reason for giving the award is to thank Biden for being “a true friend of Israel,” his “decades-long commitment to Israel’s security,” deepening the U.S.-Israel alliance, and “his struggle against anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic hatred around the world.” “This award makes no sense,” Zionist Organization of America National...
Kevin and Irina McCarthy were at an Independence Day parade in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Highland Park with their two-year-old son Aiden when a gunman opened fire on the crowd. Kevin died as he shielded Aiden with his body. Both parents, in their 30s, were among the seven killed. Some 50 others were injured either by gunshots or while fleeing. As of July 6, nine people were still hospitalized. Police arrested 21-year-old Robert Crimo III, who faces seven charges of first degree murder....
A policeman forbade a Jewish man from lowering his head on the Temple Mount out of apparent concern that he was praying. In the short video clip shown on social media, an ultra-Orthodox man can be seen sitting on a fragment of a wall by himself, one arm on his knee and his head bent. An Israeli officer taps him on the shoulder and asks him politely to please raise his head. When the man asks him, "Is it forbidden to bend my head?" the policeman just repeats his request. When asked if this is pol...
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio told a news briefing Tuesday that he would stop eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream after the company announced that it was stopping its sales in Judea and Samaria as soon as the Israeli franchise’s license runs out in December 2022. “I can say I will not be eating any more Cherry Garcia for awhile,” de Blasio said in allusion to his favorite flavor, in a video shared on social media. He added that it was “sad to me” that the “good people” who founded the company, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, were making the...
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley talked about some of the behind-the-scenes dealings with her boss, President Donald Trump, as well as foreign envoys in a closed-door meeting of the politically conservative Council for National Policy, Harper’s Magazine reported. The diplomat revealed details about confrontations she had with some of America’s most notorious adversaries, including North Korea. To pass sanctions in the U.N. Security Council against that Communist state, Haley resorted to the “madman theory,” a political theory from th...
It was the signature deal of Barack Obama’s presidency, and President Trump’s dramatic announcement Tuesday that he was withdrawing from it engendered very sharp reactions from both the former president and his secretary of state, John Kerry, who oversaw the negotiations with Iran. Obama reiterated the main argument he made when Congress was debating in 2015 whether to agree to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name of the nuclear accord. “Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losin...
Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations, hit back Friday after being accused of automatically “repeat[ing] Israeli talking points” while “omitting any word of condemnation” of Israeli forces at the Gaza border fence, where daily violence orchestrated by Hamas has been ongoing. Chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat had leveled these highly critical accusations at Greenblatt and the American administration in a letter sent to all foreign diplomats in Ramallah last week. Not...
Milos Zeman, recently elected to his second five-year term as president of the Czech Republic, would like to speed up the process of moving his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, the Lidové noviny newspaper reported. The Americans announced in February that as an initial step they would be turning their consulate in Jerusalem into an embassy on May 14, coinciding with Israel’s 70th anniversary. Daniel Meron, Israel’s ambassador to Prague, tweeted that according to the Czech paper, Zeman would like his country to join US President Donald Trump...
Privately and off the record, US Ambassador David Friedman gave a pessimistic assessment of issues surrounding a possible peace deal with the Palestinians to a group of officials from the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, according to a Channel 10 News report Monday. "We do not want to raise expectations about the chances of reaching a peace agreement too much. We are realistic. We want a peace agreement, but we know that this would not destroy Hezbollah or ISIS,"...
In a victory for the Israeli right, over 1,000 members of the Likud party’s Central Committee called unanimously Sunday evening for its representatives in government to formally annex parts of Judea and Samaria and allow unlimited construction in the Jewish communities. The resolution reads: “Fifty years after the liberation of Judea and Samaria, and with them Jerusalem, our eternal capital, the Likud Central Committee calls on Likud’s elected leaders to work to allow unhindered construction and to extend Israeli law and sovereignty in all t...