Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at about 4:30 a.m. local time that he was dispatching two rescue planes to Amsterdam following a "very violent incident against Israeli citizens." "The harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked," Netanyahu's office stated, adding that he "views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity and demands that the Dutch government and security forces take vigorous and swift action against the rioters, and...
(JNS) - Amid a sharp increase in Jew-hatred after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in southern Israel, many elected officials and university presidents stood silent. That's why Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center gathered Jewish groups to "find ways to start fighting back," Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the Israeli nonprofit's president, told JNS. Shurat HaDin aimed "to retake the streets, to retake the campuses, to retake the social media, to combat antisemitism in a way that we haven't,"...
(JTA) - Bernie Marcus, the billionaire who co-founded Home Depot and became a Republican megadonor and supporter of civic and political causes in the United States and Israel, has died. Marcus, 95, died late Monday in Boca Raton, Florida. His death came on the eve of an election into which he had poured millions of dollars to support Donald Trump and Republicans across the country. In the final political donation recorded publicly before his death, made in July, Marcus gave $1 million to the...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — As midnight arrived on the East Coast, it appeared increasingly likely that Donald Trump would retake the presidency — a victory that would reshape the United States and that could change its relationship with Israel while ushering in an administration whose domestic priorities do not match those of most American Jews. That victory was confirmed early Wednesday morning when news agencies called Wisconsin for Trump, confirming that he had passed the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win. The tally made clear that Trump...
(New York Jewish Week) — Republican Rep. Mike Lawler retained his seat in New York’s 17th Congressional District in a race that saw both candidates vie for the area’s large Jewish vote and spar over support for Israel. The race was one of several swing districts in New York State that could sway control of the House. Lawler defeated Democratic challenger Mondaire Jones in the district, which covers territory north of New York City in Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester counties. Lawler won around 57 percent of the vote, 16 points ahead...
(JTA) — California voters did what was widely expected and elected Rep. Adam Schiff, a Jewish Democrat, in the senate race to replace the late Dianne Feinstein, another Jewish Democrat, who died while in office last year after serving in the role for more than 30 years. Schiff, who currently represents parts of greater Los Angeles in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeated Steve Garvey, a former star baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had hoped to beat the odds and become the first Republican to be elected to a statewide o...
(JNS) — Amsterdam police detained 62 people in connection with a series of antisemitic assaults against Israeli soccer fans, which resulted in five moderate injuries and about 20 to 30 minor ones, in the Dutch capital, the city’s prosecutor René de Beukelaer said at a Friday press. The five injured people were treated in the hospital and discharged, De Beukelaer said during the briefing with Femke Halsema, the Amsterdam mayor. Witnesses described about 100 men, whom they described as Arabs, assaulting Israelis in a coordinated manner on Frid...
(JNS) — An Israeli low-cost airline is planning to launch flights between Israel and New York this winter, ending the wartime monopoly on the popular route by Israel’s flagship carrier El Al, the Israeli Ministry of Transportation said on Wednesday. The move, which envisions four weekly flights on Israir from Tel Aviv to Newark Liberty International Airport, comes at a time when flights on U.S. carriers to and from Tel Aviv remain suspended due to the security situation, and as El Al is facing an investigation for price gouging on tickets due...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at about 4:30 a.m. local time that he was dispatching two rescue planes to Amsterdam following a “serious incident of violence against Israeli citizens.” “The prime minister takes the horrific event very seriously and demands that the Dutch government and the Dutch security forces act firmly and quickly against the rioters and ensure the peace of our citizens,” Netanyahu’s office stated, in Hebrew. Earlier in the day, Maccabi Tel Aviv lost 5-0 to Ajax Amsterdam in a Europa League socc...
(JNS) — American foreign policy can be quite resistant to change. When it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, that inertia includes a perennial refusal to take a decisive position on the so-called Palestinian right of return. The result has been decades of failed peace negotiations. With renewed talk of a two-state solution, it’s important to revisit this issue as a new approach is in order. During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, approximately 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from what is now the State of Israel. Those ref...
(JNS) — The 1979 takeover of Iran by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Revolutionary Guards, once seen by some as a hope for change, has become a nightmare for millions. Decades of repression—mass executions, torture, religious coercion and severe suppression of rights—have fueled widespread disillusionment among the Iranian populace. Iran’s violent, isolationist foreign policy has further estranged its people and amplified their yearning for freedom. Amid this landscape, Israel’s recent “Operation Days of Repentance”—its first direct strike...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Dear President-elect Donald Trump, the next leader of the United States of America, As you assume once again the mantle of the presidency and leadership of the free world, I write to you with an urgent purpose. The world watches you today with a shared conviction that good must triumph over global evil. Your previous tenure demonstrated that appeasement of malevolent forces serves only to embolden them. As a fellow believer in the Republican tradition, you understand that national strength alone can safeguard a n...
(JNS) — “There’s no such thing as a winnable war It’s a lie we don’t believe anymore … “We share the same biology, regardless of ideology But what might save us, me and you Is if the Russians love their children, too.” So sang Sting. He was, and I think he still is, a marvelous singer. But the naïve notions expressed in that 1985 song are long past their sell-by date. Start with the Russians. President Vladimir Putin firmly believes his war of conquest against Ukraine is winnable. Russians who love their children have no say in the matter. A...
(JNS) — In a recent bold move, Israel’s parliament voted to end the nation’s relationship with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. This decision, with overwhelming support from both the ruling coalition and the opposition, has now been ratified by the Israeli government. This decision is not merely a political stance; it reflects a growing recognition that UNRWA has become a vessel for terrorism rather than a lifeline for those it purports to help. UNRWA was formed at the end of the War of Independence in 1949, born in a...
(JNS) — The Heritage Foundation rightly called the global Hamas support network an existential threat to Israel and all Jews in the Diaspora. In response, they recently conceived of “Project Esther” to serve as an antidote to the Jew-hatred sown in the meadows of higher learning and readily spread in the corridors of democratic policymaking and the mass media. This project is now needed more than ever because the damage caused by the pro-Palestinian interest groups has infected the minds of impressionable youth in the United States, clear...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of South Orlando — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael — Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona — Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy of Orlando — Monday – Friday, 7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Temple Israel — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-647-3...
(JNS) — The United Nations said in a letter Tuesday that finding a replacement for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which Israel banned for its terror ties, was Jerusalem’s responsibility. “If UNRWA is no longer able to operate it would be the responsibility of the Israeli authorities to replace its services that it delivers to civilians, in education, in health, and all sorts of other areas,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ chef de cabinet, Courtenay Rattray, wrote to...
(JNS) — El Al flew about 2,000 passengers to Ben Gurion-Airport over the weekend on eight emergency flights from Amsterdam, the Jewish state’s flag carrier said, following a coordinated assault on Israelis there on Thursday night. Most of the emergency flights left on Friday and two flew on Saturday with special permission from the chief rabbis of Israel, who determined that the circumstances justified this violation of observing the Shabbat. “All passengers have boarded the flights free of ch...
(JNS) - Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu "see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its aspects," the Israeli premier said on Sunday following phone calls with the American. "In recent days, I have spoken three times with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump," Netanyahu revealed in written remarks published by the Prime Minister's Office on Sunday afternoon. The "very good and important talks" were meant to "further enhance the steadfast bond" with Washington, Netanyahu said. "We see...
(JNS) — The dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday led to a battle of narratives as the Prime Minister’s Office said Gallant was fired over disagreements connected to the war’s conduct while the opposition tried to frame the move as petty politics. Four opposition leaders held a joint press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem on Wednesday, accusing Netanyahu of dismissing Gallant in order to pass a “draft-dodger bill” needed to placate h...
(JNS) — Police in Amsterdam on Sunday arrested several dozen people at an unauthorized anti-Israel protest rally at a square where, days earlier, Muslims assaulted Israeli soccer fans. The arrests at Dam Square followed a temporary municipal ban on the anti-Israel demonstrations that regularly take place there. The ban followed the coordinated assault on Thursday by at least 100 Muslim men on fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team who were leaving a match against the local Ajax team. Fiv...
By Josh Hasten (JNS) - Standing on the roof of her apartment building on the eastern tip of the central Israeli town of Rosh HaAyin, just meters away from the security barrier, Moriah Tzafar shares a grave concern. "We see [Palestinian Authority] cars driving around, getting closer to us. What are they doing here? The area is a closed military firing zone [Zone 203]. We see them carrying out tours of the fence line. There are cars, people, illegal housing, and they're getting closer. We report...
(JNS) — President-elect Donald Trump wants Israel to wrap up its wars against Iran and its regional terror proxies with a “decisive victory,” campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Pipko told Channel 12 News on Wednesday. “I would say he expects them to end it by winning it, one hundred percent; that’s how he always talks about ending wars,” the Jewish Republican Party spokesperson told the Israeli news broadcaster. “Donald Trump always says he wants less innocent people to die—that is his stance whether we’re talking about the war in Gaza, whether...
(JNS) — The Knesset on Thursday night approved the appointment of Israel Katz as defense minister, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Yoav Gallant from the position earlier this week. The legislature also approved Gideon Sa’ar’s appointment to replace Katz as the Jewish state’s foreign minister. The Knesset voted 58-0 in favor of the appointments, with opposition lawmakers boycotting the session. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing of Gallant was legal, Israel’s attorney general informed the country’s High Court on Thursday....
(JNS) - A video clip of two Hamas terrorists discussing Almog Sarusi, 27, one of the hostages taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023, was aired by Israeli public broadcaster Kan News on Wednesday. Sarusi was killed along with five other hostages in a Hamas tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza. His body was discovered along with those of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Ori Danino. The video was found on a USB flash drive in the tunnel near where the bodies were...
