Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Some 5,000 people attended the annual Chabad lighting of the National Menorah on the Ellipse, south of the White House, on Wednesday night, the first night of Chanukah, according to organizers, who had to set up extra chairs for the overflow crowd. Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, emceed the event, which he and his father, Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, have organized for decades. He told JNS that the turnout and energy at the event show that Jews ha...
(JNS) - More than two decades on from suffering horrific injuries in a Hamas terror attack, a New Jersey resident says she and other victims have been "retraumatized" by ongoing support for Hamas on American streets and university campuses. Sarri Singer, a Lakewood native, was volunteering in Israel when she was seriously wounded in the Davidka Square suicide bombing on a Jerusalem 14A bus on June 11, 2003. The Palestinian terrorist, dressed as an Orthodox Jew, had boarded the bus at the Mahane...
(JNS) — The United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire on Wednesday morning, citing its failure to condition a halt in hostilities directly to the release of the hostages. “We could not support an unconditional ceasefire that failed to release the hostages,” Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the council. Wood accused Hamas—and not Israel—of blocking a negotiated ceasefire and cited Israel’s reference for a temporary ceasefire and a phased release of hosta...
(JNS) — Several Democratic senators told JNS on Wednesday night that the significant number of their colleagues who voted for an Israeli arms embargo weren’t representative of the party. Republicans in the upper chamber said the figure—up to 19 on one measure—represented the Democrats’ abandonment of a key ally. Asked how decisive an issue the votes on the three resolutions of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), which would have banned the transfer of certain categories of weapons to Israel, were for his party, Cory Booker (D-N. J.) said, “When you...
(JNS) - Family members of those who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, told a gathering of largely American Jews on Monday that "the most Jewish thing you can do" is speak out on the need for a hostage deal. With the U.S. presidential election in the rearview mirror and a new government readying to take over, "we need to hear from all sides that this is really important for the Jewish community now," said Orna Neutra,...
(JNS) — As the three-day Association of the United States Army annual meeting and exhibition wound down on Oct. 16 in Washington, word spread among Israeli defense companies that Emmanuel Macron, the French president, intended to ban them from the upcoming Euronaval defense fair outside Paris. A spokesman for a major Israeli defense company told JNS on Wednesday at the Washington event that France’s decision to bar Israeli companies “is not surprising,” referring further questions to the Israeli Defense Ministry. A ministry representative at th...
(JNS) — In a statement marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, referred to the terror group’s “abhorrent” acts and said that the ensuing war “continues to shatter lives and inflict profound human suffering for Palestinians in Gaza, and now the people of Lebanon.” “The Oct. 7 attack scarred souls, and on this day we remember all those who were brutally killed and suffered unspeakable violence, including sexual violence, as they were simply livi...
(JNS) — In an address to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday morning, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas called the holiest Jewish site—the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—the “exclusive property of Muslims” and referred to Israel as a “terrorist state” that does not deserve membership in the United Nations. Abbas, whose presidential mandate expired in 2009–the last time P.A. elections were held–told those watching that “the world is responsible” for what he asserted were crimes against humanity taking place in the Gaza Strip amid Israe...
(JNS) — Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, told JNS in July that Hamas poses a “tactical threat” to Israel, while Hezbollah presents a “strategic threat.” Since that conversation, Hezbollah has continued to attack the Jewish state regularly. But Washington is still not paying enough attention to the U.S.-designated terror group and to the plight of Israelis in the northern part of the country, Oren told JNS last week at the Israeli-American Council summit in Washington. “I’ve been trying to raise awareness in this...
(JNS)— Jerusalem’s Old City and Judea and Samaria must be judenrein within a year, according to a Palestinian-drafted resolution, which the U.N. General Assembly passed on Sept. 18. The resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line. More than 40 countries sponsored the resolution, which was the first that Palestinians filed after being granted unprecede...
(JNS) — During Barack Obama’s presidency, Thomas Nides attended foreign policy meetings as U.S. deputy secretary of state for management and resources. Just as he saw Obama include Joe Biden, then the vice president, Nides has seen President Biden consult with Vice President Kamala Harris. “I sat in the Situation Room for hundreds of meetings with President Obama and the vice president, and the vice president was included on almost every major foreign policy decision,” Nides told JNS on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convent...
(JNS) — The parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, along with those in attendance on Wednesday evening at Chicago’s United Center, provided the Democratic National Convention with one of its most memorable moments. Entering to chants of “Bring Them Home,” Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin brought tears to the eyes of many in attendance with the gut-wrenching story of their son and Chicago native, and their broader thoughts on the hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Speaking with reporters Wednesday night, Hersh’s...
(JNS) — An Iranian attack on the Jewish state “could be this week,” but U.S. President Joe Biden “is confident that we have the capability available to us to help defend Israel should it come to that,” John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, told reporters on Monday. The White House shares Israel’s “same concerns and expectations” about the potential timing of Iran’s reaction to the July 31 assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in a heavily-guarded Tehran guest house complex. Israel has neithe...
(JNS) — U.S., Egyptian and Qatari leaders released a statement on Thursday calling jointly for an immediate conclusion to talks between Israel and Hamas about a ceasefire and hostage release agreement. “It is time to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families,” the three stated. “The time has come to conclude the ceasefire and hostages and detainees release deal.” The statement, signed by U.S. President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatari E...
(JNS) — As some 10,000 people braved the summer heat and rain in line to enter Temple University’s Liacouras Center in North Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon for Vice President Kamala Harris’s first event with her newly-announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, half a dozen protesters chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” The protesters, some of whom were clad in keffiyehs and masked, used bullhorns and yelled for hours in front of an essentially...
(JNS) — The United Nations announced Aug. 5 that nine staff members of the scandal-plagued UNRWA organization “may have been involved” in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, as its internal investigation into Israeli allegations came to a close. The U.N. Internal Oversight Services handled the months-long fact-finding investigation in the wake of Jerusalem’s stunning allegations that a number of UNRWA employees had taken part in the atrocities of Oct. 7. The contention had led to 16 countries suspending assistance to UNRWA,...
(JNS) — The United States and Europe stayed away from a United Nations General Assembly tribute to the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The so-called “Butcher of Tehran,” said to be responsible for the killings of thousands of Iranian dissidents, died on May 20 in a helicopter crash that also killed the country’s foreign minister and six others. “The United States will not attend today’s United Nations tribute event for President Raisi in any capacity,” Nate Evans, spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said in a sta...
(JNS) — In part due to the unleashing of Jew-hatred in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, antisemitism in the United States spiked by a record 140%, according to figures released by the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday. Nearly 9,000 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism—including more than 5,000 in the post-Oct. 7 period—were reported across America last year. The figure not only blew away the totals from 2022—itself a record year—but outpaced the marks from the previous three years combined. The ADL began tracking relevant da...
(JNS) — The U.N. Security Council’s committee on new members reported on Tuesday that it could not reach a consensus on the revived application for full Palestinian U.N. membership. Algeria, the Arab world’s de facto representative on the council, has drafted its own resolution and plans to put the application up for a decisive vote on Thursday afternoon. Washington has suggested that it would veto such an application. The Committee on the Admission of New Members, which includes representatives of all the members of the Security Counc...
(JNS) — Forty-eight countries condemned Iran and its proxies for the Apr. 14 missile and drone attack on Israel in a joint statement issued on Wednesday evening. “We unequivocally condemn” the attacks, read the statement, specifically naming Iran and its “militant partners” and noting that “this large-scale attack could have caused significant damage and loss of life.” While garnering broad support, the statement was only signed by Western nations. The effort was led by the United States and included five other members of the U.N. Security...
(JNS) — The Biden administration is privately pressing several United Nations agencies to take over the responsibilities of the beleaguered UNRWA but is being rebuffed by U.N. chief António Guterres, according to a report by Devex. Anticipating that the U.S. Congress will pull funding for UNRWA, the Palestinian-only refugee and social services agency with extensive ties to Hamas, Washington has approached the heads of the World Food Programme, UNICEF and other U.N. relief agencies, requesting they begin assuming the work traditionally ca...
(JNS) — While a senior U.N. aid official said on Tuesday that a quarter of the Gazan population is one step away from famine, Israel and the United States laid blame at the feet of the United Nations and Hamas, respectively. The U.N. Security Council met on Tuesday afternoon to discuss food insecurity in Gaza. Much of the enclave’s agricultural and food production infrastructure has been severely impacted by the war between Israel and Hamas. But Robert Wood, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters that ultimately, Ham...
(JNS) — For the United Nations’ point man on the Middle East, all options are on the table when it comes to the future of Israel and the Palestinians. “I am very sure of one thing: The divide and the distrust that has come out of this conflict has made it necessary to look at the options that we thought were dead,” Tor Wennesland, the U.N. special coordinator on the Middle East peace process, told reporters in a rare press briefing on Wednesday. The Norwegian longtime diplomat said that the “one-state reality” that many critics of Israel deem...
(JNS) — Despite the presence of a Hamas terror tunnel system in the Gaza Strip now thought to be larger in scale than the London Underground, the United Nations insists it had no idea the tunnels were being built. Asked on Wednesday whether, given the United Nations’ sizable presence in Gaza via a variety of agencies, there had been any indication to the global body that tunnels were being constructed underground, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said, “No is clearl...
(JNS) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was set to meet on Tuesday with major donors to the embattled U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the United Nations’ Palestinian-only refugee organization. A number of major donor countries announced in recent days the suspension of their contributions to the agency amid revelations that 12 UNRWA employees participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre. The information was provided to UNRWA by Israel. Nine of the 12 employees had their contracts terminated, while anoth...
