Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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By (JNS) — An investigative report published earlier this month purports to show that senior Israeli and American officials had in hand financial intelligence showing the flow of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas and failed to act on it. That funding, the report alleges, helped Hamas pay for its military infrastructure, laying the foundation for its Oct. 7 massacre. As Israel now looks to take apart Hamas piece by piece militarily, there is a renewed focus on disrupting its funding. Erel Margalit, Israeli hi-tech entrepreneur and former m...
(JNS) — Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) sits on the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, giving him a 360-degree perspective on both the context surrounding Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and its aftermath. “At the end of the day, this administration has an Iran policy problem,” Waltz said of the White House’s reported efforts to appease Iran in exchange for restarting the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2015. “It has been obsessed wi...
(JNS) — The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to hold an emergency session on Wednesday morning following an explosion at a Gaza hospital that has set the Middle East on edge. Russia and the United Arab Emirates called for the open meeting shortly after the explosion, in the courtyard of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which according to Hamas sources killed some 500 Palestinians. The explosion rocked the hospital as Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired heavy barrages of rockets at southern and central Israel. Alarms sounded i...
(JNS) — In January, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said during an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event that the international body was “founded upon the ashes of the Holocaust. It was established to ensure such darkness would never be felt by humanity again,” but “when it comes to fighting antisemitism, sadly, the U.N. ignores its purpose.” António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, was present at the time, and the U.N. point man on antisemitism, Miguel Moratinos, later told JNS that “Israel and...
(JNS) - It was partly a celebration of life and partly an outpouring of anger. Several hundred Israel supporters-religious and secular, Israeli and American born-joined together in tight, barricaded quarters at the corner of Second Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan on Monday afternoon, countering an ugly pro-Hamas rally across the intersection outside the Israeli consulate. A rally supporting the terror group's massacre of Israelis and foreign nationals turned violent in Times Square on...
(JNS) - "The era of reasoning with these savages is over," Israel's ambassador to the United Nations told an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Sunday, referring to the Hamas terrorist organization. Following the weekend's unprecedented terrorist assault on Israel by the Gaza-based Iranian proxy group, envoy Gilad Erdan said the time has come to "obliterate Hamas terror infrastructure, to completely erase it, so that such horrors are never committed again." He continued: "These...
(JNS) — Nearly every notable U.S. State Department official is on pilgrimage to New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly’s annual general debate. Barbara Leaf, the Biden administration’s top diplomat for the Middle East, and Dan Shapiro, senior adviser for regional integration and former U.S. ambassador to Israel, have been spotted in the Big Apple, as has Amos Hochstein, the Israeli-American U.S. energy envoy, who brokered an Israeli-Lebanese maritime border agreement. Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. special envoy for monit...
(JNS) —America’s ambassador to the United Nations emphasized at Monday’s U.N. Security Council meeting last week, the Biden administration designated a Hezbollah-linked group—one that purports to be an environmental organization—a terror group. Linda Thomas-Greenfield also stamped the “terror” label on two Israelis who have been charged, but not yet tried, in a deadly incident earlier this month. “We strongly condemn the terror attacks by settlers in Burqa on August 4 that killed a 19-year-old Palestinian,” said the ambassador, notin...
(JNS) - A deli chef prepares roast pork sandwiches as a museum official quotes from the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot, often translated as "Ethics of the Fathers." Saturday's Borscht Belt Fest was decidedly not kosher, but there was a clear Jewish vibe to it as attendees flocked to Ellenville, N.Y., to reminisce about the golden age of the Catskill Mountains as a Jewish summer getaway. The first-ever festival, held on July 29 in the searing summer heat, included a street fair, comedy shows, lectures,...
(JNS) — The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations implored its Security Council to help clamp down on Hezbollah’s repeated provocations along the Israeli-Lebanese border. “The Middle East is a powder keg on the cusp of being ignited” due to “Hezbollah’s violent escalations, blatant violations of Security Council resolutions and dangerous military advancements,” Gilad Erdan wrote late last week to the U.N. council. The Iran-backed, Lebanese terror group Hezbollah controls Southern Lebanon. Security Council resolutions and pronouncement...
(JNS) - Just as Israel's president was settling in following a busy day in Washington, a gift came his way from the Capitol, courtesy of the Jewish state's opponents. Less than 24 hours before he was to address a joint session of Congress, the House passed a Republican-sponsored resolution stating that Israel is not a racist or apartheid state. The resolution's filing was inspired by a flippant insult hurled at Israel by the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who, under heavy...
(JNS) - Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, took to the stage on Monday evening at the annual Christians United for Israel Summit in Washington. The former governor of South Carolina played to an adoring, pro-Israel crowd as a darling of its movement. Haley, who trails well behind former President Donald Trump in polls very early in the presidential primary cycle, spoke with reporters before assuming the stage. She seemed prepped for a foreign-policy debate, covering an ar...
(JNS) — Ahead of a one-on-one meeting on July 19 at the White House, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a new climate technology partnership, which will draw up to $70 million of U.S. and Israeli investment to support climate-healthy agriculture and use new technologies to protect critical Middle East and Africa water resources. “We are harnessing today the broad infrastructure of our cooperation to introduce a new joint initiative to address a primary challenge of our time,” said Herzog. He said...
(JNS) — JNS reported last April that Morningstar and its subsidiary Sustainalytics had flagged 26 companies for doing business beyond the so-called Green Line in Israel. Its “controversy ratings” could dissuade socially-conscious investors from placing funds in those companies. Under pressure from a growing list of state-level investigations for potential anti-Israel BDS practices, Morningstar and Sustainalytics, an environmental, social and corporate governance rater, have trimmed the list down substantially. Multiple sources told JNS that...
(JNS) — Sometimes, kids just need a hug. That’s especially true of children who have endured the horrors of war. In 2006, Israeli psychologists invented a plush dog called Hibuki—Hebrew for “hug”—to help kids cope with trauma from the Second Lebanon War. The stuffed toy, with its elongated arms and sad eyes, has expanded globally. Last year, it was introduced in Ukraine, and now Hibuki is comforting many Ukrainian refugee children who have made their way to New York, at a Brooklyn school that...
(JNS) - New York City Mayor Eric Adams made the controversy surrounding a law student's antisemitic remarks in a May 12 CUNY commencement speech his first order of business in his remarks at Gracie Mansion on May 31. Addressing a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the official mayoral residence, he railed against City University of New York Law School graduate Fatima Mohammed. The student's commencement remarks, which heavily criticized the New York Police Department where Adams once...
(JNS) — In a seemingly never-ending war of narratives, the Palestinians got center stage on Monday at the United Nations, though Israel was victorious in dwindling the audience down. May 15 marked the first official U.N. “Nakba Day,” per a resolution that the U.N. General Assembly passed in December. In Arabic, the word means “disaster” or “catastrophe,” in relation to the establishment of modern-day Israel on May 14, 1948. The ceremonies took place Monday morning at the United Nations, despite the history of the alleged “catastrophe...
(JNS) — Ahead of a visit to Israel by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Sunshine State’s chief financial officer told JNS that Norway is out of line in considering divesting from the Jewish state. Jimmy Patronis, the Florida CFO, sent a letter late last month to Heidi Olufsen, Norway’s consul general in New York, to “express serious concerns regarding reports that Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund is reviewing recommendations by your nation’s ethics committee to add Israel to its excluded funds list.” Among the world’s largest investo...
(JNS) — At one point, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel appeared to adopt a small-ball strategy: enough singles, even soft ones, in the court system would knock the pitcher out of the game. No need to swing for the fences. That strategy, however, which seeks to win narrow injunctions that result in U.S. state legislatures tweaking relevant laws, appears to be a doomed game plan, as evidenced by recent court decisions. The latest swing and miss came earlier this month when a federal appeals court rejected a challenge...
(JNS) - Both houses of Congress reintroduced legislation this week to honor the late Roddie Edmonds, who put his life in danger to save Jews during World War II and the Holocaust, and is one of five Americans Yad Vashem names as "Righteous Among the Nations." Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) put the bill up again in the House after an unsuccessful bid last session. This time is different, he told JNS. "I've been here a little longer. I've got a little more seniority, and I know a few more people,"...
(JNS) — One of many United Nations bodies dedicated to the Palestinians announced last weekend an upcoming U.N. commemoration of “Nakba Day,” the supposed “catastrophe” that marked the birth of the State of Israel in 1948. Palestinian and their supporters mark this annually on May 15, one day after Israel announced its independence on May 14, 1948. The day purportedly memorializes the displacement of Palestinian Arabs. During the course of fighting beginning in November 1947, when U.N. member states voted to partition the land, and lasting u...
(JNS) — With the release of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 25th annual Digital Terrorism and Hate Report on Monday, a key Jewish New York City leader says that the hate filtering out onto the streets has its origins on social media. “What we know to exist—that hate is on the rise—and the high-profile cases on the news are often the endpoint of hate,” Eric Dinowitz, New York City Council member and chair of the council’s Jewish Caucus, told JNS. “We see the assaults in Hell’s Kitchen and Times Square. We see mass murders at synagogues and su...
(JNS) - In his first visit to the United Nations, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff called on U.N. leaders to globalize the fight against antisemitism. He told the body on Thursday that it cannot normalize spiking rates of Jew-hatred. Emhoff, the Jewish husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed ambassadors and members of civil society at a special, high-level side event. The U.N. missions of the U.S., Israel, Argentina, Canada, Morocco and the United Kingdom hosted the event. U.S....
(JNS) - A year after introducing a line of ovens that allowed for automated use during Shabbat, General Electrical Appliances is preparing to roll out refrigerators and freezers with the same built-in technology. The line of 45 top-freezer refrigerators is to include manually operated, built-in Enhanced Shabbos Mode. Products with the feature will include the Orthodox Union (OU) Kosher symbol on the product and will be certified by both the OU and the Central Rabbinical Congress...
(JNS) - Over the course of his illustrious career, Israel "Izzy" Tapoohi has helmed some of the most recognizable Israeli franchises, including Africa-Israel Investments, Bezeq, Israel Bonds and the Israel Electric Corporation. But, as he announces his retirement at year's end, Tapoohi, 76, says nothing has been more fulfilling than his role over the last six years as president and CEO of the Birthright Israel Foundation, the non-profit organization that raises funds in the United States to...
