Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 76 - 93 of 93
(JNS)—Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, announced on Sunday that it had broken up a major Hamas terrorist cell that was forming in the West Bank Palestinian city of Nablus. The Shin Bet described the cell as unusual in its scope and activities. It was plotting major terrorist atrocities, including suicide bombings, planting bombs and gun attacks targeting Israeli cities and smaller communities. The cell comprised of more than 20 suspected operatives, most of them Hamas members. During counter-terrorist raids to break it up, l...
(JNS)-Gaza's second-largest terrorist faction, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is leading the current dangerous escalation of the security situation, which may yet escalate further, and which represents the most serious flare-up of violence since the 2014 armed conflict between Israel and Hamas. Col. (ret.) Shay Shaul, former deputy head of the National Security Council of Israel, told JNS that PIJ could be motivated by one of two things. The first is that the terror organization is seeking...
(JNS)-Some 50 percent of air-defense batteries belonging to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad have been destroyed after they fired on Israel Air Force jets in recent months during multiple operations, a senior air-force source said on Wednesday. The officer was speaking to reporters during an international air conference hosted in Israel, which brought together commanders from 20 foreign air-force establishments to discuss professional and operational matters with the IAF....
(JNS) In striking more than 50 Iranian military targets within 90 minutes early on Thursday morning, the Israel Defense Force displayed just a sample of its advanced, intelligence-fueled precision firepower, dealing a crushing blow to Iran's assets in Syria. This exchange of fire represents a new, stepped-up phase in the escalating Israeli-Iranian standoff in Syria. Much of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria was destroyed in this wave of strikes, likely leaving the Quds Force-the overseas...
(JNS)-The coming month of May looks set to contain an unusual number of potential escalation points that could converge to create a highly explosive month. The Israeli defense establishment is dealing with several pending potential flashpoints, including an Iranian threat to revenge a missile attack on an air base in Syria that was housing several senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers; a decision by the Trump administration on whether to cancel or amend the nuclear deal with Iran; we...
(JNS)-Members of the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli civilians are jointly commemorating the decisive battles of the 1948 War of Independence ahead of national celebrations of Israel's 70th year of Independence. "When you study the War of Independence, which is fascinating, in an in-depth manner, you see that the IDF was born in this war," Education Officer Lt.-Col. Shuli Ben Moha, who is running the commemoration tours, told JNS. "In this war, the IDF built itself up. Its values were born in...
(JNS)-The recent missile strike on a military airbase deep in the central Syrian desert looks like the latest installment in a long-standing Israeli campaign to police its red lines against highly dangerous developments to its north. Usually, such strikes are driven by incoming intelligence of threatening activity underway in Syria-activity that breaches Jerusalem's ban on Iran from constructing military bases in Syria, from setting up weapons factories there and from using Syria as a transit zo...
(JNS)-Since Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip more than a decade ago, it has built, trained, and armed a terrorist-army and guerilla force, and planted it in high-rise buildings, underground bunkers, and tunnels, in the midst of the civilian population. Israel and Hamas have engaged in three large-scale conflicts and numerous smaller-scale flare-ups over the past ten years, and, as the IDF looks ahead to the future, it is preparing new ways for its units to operate in this urban warfare...
(JNS) The Israeli and U.S. militaries are in the midst of a large-scale missile-defense exercise, designed to simulate responses to a Middle East war on multiple fronts. The scenario at the heart of the planned, biannual drill involves the Israeli home front coming under heavy enemy fire from several directions simultaneously. The Juniper Cobra 18 exercise, held since 2001, practices the rapid deployment of American air-defense units and equipment to Israel from Europe in the event of armed conflict, in addition to the integration of U.S....
(JNS)-After years of bloody warfare, Syria has become a "Shi'a colony of Iran," a Syrian professor who lives in Germany told an Israeli conference in recent days. Addressing the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, Bassam Tibi, professor emeritus of international relations at Georg-August University of Gottingen, said: "They have killed our clans. They have killed our family. The Alawites of the Assad regime have killed our Sunni identity of Damascus." Tibi, a...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India is occurring against the backdrop of a massive and still growing river of defense sales and technology transfers from Jerusalem to New Delhi. Israel's defense industries have been supplying ever-increasing numbers of cutting-edge weapons and platforms to India's military. Last April, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced a $2 billion sale of medium-range, surface-to-air missile defense systems to the Indian Army. IAI's Barak 8 air...
A new elite IDF infantry unit is about to take up its position along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. The Haruv (Carob) unit, named after a renowned force that operated in Israel’s southern desert borders in the 1960s and 1970s, was once a regular infantry battalion in the Kfir brigade, focusing on security operations in Judea and Samaria (the territories). Several months ago, the IDF decided to convert this battalion into an elite unit, and to give it the training, weapons, vehicles and high-tech equipment it would need to fight in Gaz...
Hamas's latest effort to join a Palestinian unity government is little more than a facade, and the terror group's top immediate objective is to seize control of Judea and Samaria and turn it into a second Gaza, according to the assessments of defense experts. After years of failed attempts at reconciliation, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas in October announced that they would implement a unity deal, which included the restoration of PA control in...
Within two years, a deep underground wall, equipped with advanced sensors, will cut through Hamas’s ability to tunnel into Israel. That will lead southern Israeli villages and towns to breathe a collective sigh of relief. But the Gazan terrorist factions that are currently arming themselves are likely already thinking about new ways to target Israelis. The IDF and Israeli Defense Ministry are working around the clock to complete the new underground wall. It will stretch 65 kilometers (40 miles) from north to south, across Israel’s entire bor...
On Friday night July 21, Maj. Hanan (full name withheld for security reasons) received word of a gruesome development. A knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist had killed three members of an Israeli family in the settlement of Halamish. The terrorist, a 19-year-old Palestinian from a nearby village, was shot and injured by an Oketz K9 unit soldier, who lived next door. By the time Hanan, who heads the Counter-Terrorism Branch in the IDF's Counter-Terrorism School, arrived at the blood-stained...
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has significantly stepped up the scope and frequency of its combat training, as sub-state jihadist enemies around the Jewish state build up their power. In the event of any future large-scale conflict-whether it be against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and possibly in Syria, where Hezbollah has a heavy presence; against Hamas in Gaza; or against other foes in other arenas-Israeli military planners believe they will need a ground offensive involving maneuvering...
A year and a half after it was signed, the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers has held up, but the agreement’s future is now in doubt. Before being elected last November, President Donald Trump described the agreement with Iran as “the worst deal ever negotiated” and said he would act to dismantle it. This position echoes the frequent comments on the deal by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Following Trump’s election, Netanyahu expressed hope that he could work with Trump to undo the arrangement. Yet it remains far from clear...
"You are living in a paradise in comparison to the Syrian people. Shame on you. We are being killed," said Issam Zeitoun, who lives in the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights, in response to Arab-Israeli students who accused him of being a traitor because he was speaking in Israel. Zeitoun was one of two Syrian opposition figures who addressed Israelis Jan. 17 at Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace in Jerusalem. The Syrians shared their plight and...
