Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)-For months, the Israeli government has pursued the objective of trying to stabilize the Gaza Strip. It tried to reach new truce understandings with Hamas through indirect negotiations-brokered by the Egyptians and others-and avoid a new war. But the latest incidents show that the goal of stabilizing Gaza is growing increasingly distant by the day. On Sunday, Palestinian Islamic Jihad attempted to carry out a border bomb attack, which was foiled successfully by the Israel Defense Forces,...
(JNS)-The quick succession of Palestinian attacks on Israeli security forces in the past 24 hours appears to be a chain reaction of unorganized incidents, each one forming the "inspiration" for the next attacker and each attack forming a link in the terrorist chain. The goal of Israel's security forces now is to cut that chain and freeze the momentum of incidents before they snowball into a wider wave of violence that will be far more difficult to control. In a joint operation launched by the...
(JNS)-The wave of Iranian ballistic missiles that struck two military bases in Iraq early on Wednesday that house U.S. personnel was a clear Iranian attempt to conclude the current phase of escalation with Washington. The missiles failed, intentionally or not, to cause any casualties, after days of warnings by Iranian officials saying that U.S. military targets would be hit-possibly an early warning designed to decrease the chance of victims when the strikes actually came. Still, they were an ex...
(JNS)—The American airstrike assassination of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad early on Friday follows a major miscalculation on the part of Tehran in the decision to up the ante against the United States. While the extent of Iran’s response is not yet clear, military planners in the region, including in Israel, will need to prepare for the most severe scenarios. Even though Iran may seek to launch a calculated retaliation, which would exact a price without going to war, no...
(JNS)-A ceasefire that appeared fragile, and which was punctured twice by rocket fire from Gaza, went into effect on Thursday, Nov. 14, after 50 hours of combat between the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror faction and the Israel Defense Forces. As many as 450 rockets were fired at Israeli cities and towns throughout the escalation, though more than 90 percent of those that were heading into built-up areas were shot out of the sky by Iron Dome air-defense batteries. Some 60...
(JNS)-Palestinian Islamic Jihad-the second-largest armed terror faction in Gaza after Hamas-is agitating for violence, and is in fact the organization that conducted Friday-night's rocket barrage on the Israeli border city of Sderot. It appears as if the commander of the PIJ's northern Gaza brigade-a terror chief named Baha Abu Al Atta-is directly behind the latest rocket fire that targeted Israeli civilians. The Iron Dome air-defense system intercepted most of the incoming rockets, though one...
(JNS)—Israel has been closely monitoring Turkey’s brutal offensive against the Kurds in northeast Syria in recent days. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Turkish invasion on Oct. 10, stating that Israel “warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies,” and that “Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people.” However, Israel’s concerns with regard to the Turkish operation extend beyond Ankara’s conflict with the Kurds. Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. (res...
(JNS)-The decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to pull back troops from northern Syria in the face of a likely Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces is a blow to American deterrent power in the Middle East. It is also a move that looks set to hasten the creation of a power vacuum, which a variety of Islamists will look forward to filling. While it's too soon to know the full impact the move will have, it raises several potential scenarios, some of which would be deeply destructive for...
(JNS)-When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Sochi in Russia last month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the event turned into a political football back in Israel. Seizing on the fact that Netanyahu was made to wait for almost three hours to see Putin (allegedly because the Russian leader was late returning from an event in Dagestan), Netanyahu's political rival, Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, stated on Sept. 13 that "in Russia, nothing happens by chance...
(JNS)—In recent weeks, Iran and its proxies have begun operating under a new directive best described as a policy of controlled escalation. Still, the potential for miscalculation and region-wide conflict has grown considerably. Responding to the chokehold of U.S. sanctions put in place by the Trump administration, Tehran, together with its non-state militias and terrorist entities, initiated a series of aggressive acts throughout the Middle East. These include the targeting of oil tankers in t...
(JNS)-The Israeli satellite imagery company, ImageSat International (ISI), released photographs in recent days showing what it described as "Iran's land bridge from Tehran to the Mediterranean." The images show Iranian construction work on a new crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border, which, according to ISI, would allow Iran to transfer weapons, armed personnel and oil into Syria. The images are from an area that has been in the headlines in the past. An older border crossing in the same area, kno...
(JNS)—The Hamas rocket that shattered a village home in the Sharon district of central Israel, north of Tel Aviv early on morning of March 25, is an attack that for Israeli leadership represents a step too far. Eleven days after Hamas fired two rockets in the direction of Tel Aviv—in what it claimed was “an accidental” maintenance error—this time, it appears as if the organization’s addiction to gambling and upping the ante to extract concessions from Israel has led it to commit a serious mistake, one that will come with punishing repercussio...
(JNS)—Iran could be trying to build missile factories in Syria again, according to recent reports, raising the possibility of further Israeli preemptive action. The Israeli commercial satellite company ImageSat International (ISI) published images this month showing suspicious activity at a compound in Safita in northwest Syria. “The construction patterns, the compound location and the activity signs at the compound and its region increase the probability that this is a missiles manufacturing site,” ISI assessed. Israel remains committed to the...
(JNS)-Last Thursday night's twin rocket attack on greater Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip marks a dramatic escalation of the security situation that could prove to be highly costly for Hamas. While it remains unclear at the time of this writing which terrorist organization is responsible for the rockets, the attacks represent a break from the past months of controlled escalation, a policy led by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The symbolism involved in firing on Israel's largest metropolis and economic...
(JNS)-This time six years ago, Israel completed its high-tech border fence with Egypt, marking the start of a transformation in the situation along this restive frontier. With its network radars and cameras, the obstacle-dubbed "Hourglass" by the Israeli Defense Ministry-issues alerts to Israel Defense Forces units regarding suspicious movements. The barrier has almost completely stopped the mass movement of illegal migration from Africa, Dr. Ofer Israeli, a geostrategist and international...
(JNS)—In 2019, a team of Israelis will make history when an unmanned spacecraft they built will launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., destined for the moon. SpaceIL, an Israeli nonprofit organization, has teamed up with defense giant Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to build the spacecraft. When it touches down on the lunar surface, Israel will join an exclusive club consisting of the United States, Russia and China, which have sent spacecraft to Earth’s nearest neighbor. “This is a major sourc...
(JNS)-As the Israel Defense Forces ploughs ahead with an operation to expose and destroy a network of Hezbollah tunnels snaking their way into northern Israel from Lebanon, the military must also be prepared for the risk of a sudden escalation with the powerful Shi'ite terrorist organization, a former senior defense official told JNS. Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, who has served in the past as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's National Security Adviser, said that the operation underway to...
(JNS)-A decision by the Israeli government to award Chinese companies contracts to manage and build key Israeli ports is drawing controversy in Israel. Haifa's growing port, located close to a naval base, will be managed by one Chinese company, while a second port in Ashdod, also near a naval base, is being constructed by a second Chinese firm. The topic made headlines in recent weeks following a University of Haifa conference on Maritime Security in the Eastern Mediterranean. During the confere...
(JNS) The ability of Israel's enemies to target civilians and members of the armed forces with cyber attacks is growing, security experts have warned. In August, the Israeli ClearSky cyber-security company uncovered a Hamas phony and irremovable rocket-alert application, which, if downloaded, can take over a smartphone and access its camera, location services and communications. The malware was timed to coincide with an increase in rocket attacks last month, according to the company. During the...
(JNS)-When Lt. S (full name withheld), a professional skateboarder, slammed into a safety barrier while traveling at 60 kilometers an hour during a sports event-breaking his back, pelvis and shin a few years ago-he knew he had a long road of recovery ahead of him. He also knew that his dream of having a meaningful service in the Israel Defense Forces would need to wait. Now though, the experience of getting back on his feet helped him gain the mental fortitude that he would later call upon to...
(JNS)-The security escalation in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours shows that Hamas is prepared to take the region to the brink of war, and that it believes it can force new rules of conduct on Israel while paying a minimal price for its aggression. Its actions have placed the region in danger of a major new conflict. Hamas's leadership is dangling the option of a long-term truce before Israel with one hand and firing barrages of rockets at southern Israel with the...
(JNS)—Under the expert guidance of IDF Home Front Command, Israeli hospitals across the country are shoring up their ability to shift into war mode should a sudden conflict erupt without prior warning. In such a scenario, hospitals could, like the rest of the country, find themselves under heavy fire, yet still must be able to provide life-saving care for existing patients and the war-wounded. On Thursday, the Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat in northern Israel held an intensive drill, simulating a situation in which it came under heavy rocket f...
(JNS)-Israel's newest air-defense system, David's Sling, made the headlines this week after going into action for the first time on the border with Syria. Although it appeared not to strike the target-in this case, two short-range missiles fired by the Assad regime against a rebel region near the Israeli border-that should not be seen as a major setback, defense experts have told JNS. Produced by Israeli defense company Rafael, in partnership with American defense firm Raytheon, the David's...
(JNS)-In its desperate effort to break out of isolation and prevent the Gazan economy from collapsing, Hamas is marching Gaza to the very brink of war with Israel. All of Hamas's recent actions are designed to use blackmail, terrorism and the threat of war to force a change, as well as get major funds flowing into the Gaza Strip. These efforts began several months ago with mass marches on Fridays and border-infiltration attempts. That ended with a high number of casualties on May 14, but failed...
(JNS)-The first four female tank commanders in the Israel Defense Forces have successfully completed their grueling training course and will now begin their operational duties. Several additional female soldiers will serve in other duties in tanks. The new female commanders and tank crew members will conduct critical border-defense missions, though they will not belong to brigades that would maneuver deep into enemy territory in case of war. Sgt. Charlotte Feld-Davidovici of Tel Aviv, who moved...
