Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Judea and Samaria saw more than 500 Palestinian terrorist attacks each month on average in the first half of 2024, according to figures Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) published on Thursday. In the first six months of this year, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges and 109 shootings. Palestinian terrorists have killed 14 people and wounded 155 others in Judea and Samaria since the start o...
(JTA) - A Russian court has sentenced the decorated Russian-Jewish writer Masha Gessen to eight years in prison in absentia over comments made about the country's conduct in the Ukraine war in 2022. The sentence makes Gessen at least the fifth prominent Jewish writer to be targeted by Russia for dissenting comments since the outbreak of war. Gessen, a New York Times columnist and former New Yorker writer who fled the Soviet Union as a teenager and has written and commented extensively on...
(JTA) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly threatened to invade Israel in support of the Palestinians as fears of a war with Hezbollah escalate — a shocking comment from a member of NATO, the international alliance of Western nations. “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine,” Erdogan said on Sunday during a party meeting that was televised, according to media reports. “Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them.” He added, “There is no reason wh...
(JTA) - Hours after the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, a building-sized poster went up in the city's Palestine Square that featured the national language of Iran's sworn enemy Israel. "Wait for harsh punishment," the billboard said in Hebrew, atop a massive portrait of Haniyeh, whose funeral took place Thursday. Haniyeh is shown in front of the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim holy place on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The poster offered a powerful symbol of what unnamed Iranian...
The information in the article is as of Aug. 5. (JNS) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct attack on Israel following the assassination of Hamas terror chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Jerusalem has not taken responsibility for the missile strike that killed the Palestinian terror group’s “political” leader and his bodyguard early on Wednesday morning. Hours after the attack, the Islamic Republic held an emergency meeting of its Supreme National Security Council at the supreme...
(JNS) — Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid took to her Instagram account on Monday to call out Adidas for its “insensitive campaign” surrounding the release of its classic SL 72 sneaker, which originally debuted during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. She claimed she had not been aware of the Palestinian terrorist attack that marred the 1972 games or how that background affected the campaign she was asked to be a part of. Adidas dropped her from the campaign following widespread backlash, which included a post on the Israe...
Israel’s Security Cabinet to meet following killing of Hamas, Hezbollah leaders (JNS) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene Israel’s Security Cabinet on Wednesday afternoon following the targeted killing of Hezbollah’s No. 2 in Beirut and the killing, allegedly by the Jewish state, of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. The Security Cabinet, which is responsible for defense-related decisions and composed of senior ministers, was scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv. A strike by the Isr...
(JTA) — Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the highest-ranking leader of the terror group still alive, has been selected to helm Hamas’ political bureau going forward. The group announced the selection Wednesday, a week after the assassination in Tehran of its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh is believed to have been killed by a bomb orchestrated by Israel, which had vowed to kill Hamas’ leaders wherever they could be found but has not claimed credit for Haniyeh’s death. The move means that Sinwar, w...
By Shachar Kleiman (Israel Hayom via JNS) - The death of top Hamas leader and key strategist Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran early on Wednesday, July 31, dealt a significant blow to the terror group and could potentially alter the course of the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Haniyeh, who had been living in exile, played a pivotal role in orchestrating Hamas's Oct. 7 assault on Israel and was seen celebrating the attack from Turkey. Haniyeh's journey began in 1962 in Gaza's Shati refugee camp. In his early...
(JNS) — Intensive American diplomacy and an increased military posture in the Middle East may have prompted Tehran to reconsider a major retaliatory strike against Israel, according to The Washington Post. White House officials told the newspaper’s David Ignatius on Tuesday that they believe that President Joe Biden’s efforts to stave off a wider war are paying off, at least with regard to Tehran. However, Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah “is still a wild card,” the officials said. Iran blames Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received bursts of applause and frequent standing ovations-often from both sides of the aisle-as he delivered an address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday afternoon. In his remarks, which ran about an hour, Netanyahu praised the longevity and closeness of the U.S.-Israeli relationship; called for a decisive victory over the Hamas terror group; and urged the United States to help defeat the Iranian regime that, he said,...
(JNS) — The Biden administration has warned Israel against targeting Beirut in response to Hezbollah’s rocket attack on Saturday that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights. Washington fears that Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital could lead to a major escalation, Axios reported on Sunday. U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, tasked with the Lebanon portfolio by President Joe Biden earlier in his administration, spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday, stressing that Jerusalem has a right to defend itself against the Iranian ter...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said ending Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip would be one of his highest priorities as he ends his presidency. Biden addressed the nation Wednesday evening for the first time since he announced Sunday that he would drop his reelection bid and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris. He said he was dropping out to unify the Democratic Party, which has been divided since his disastrous debate performance against Trump last month. “I revere this office, but I love my country more,” he said. “Th...
A delegation from Orlando will join thousands of proud American Zionists at the Global Conference for Israel for a weekend filled with camaraderie, inspiration, and riveting speakers who exemplify Israel's positive contributions to the world. The annual multi-day spectacular event, best known for showcasing the pride and beauty of Zionism, providing attendees with practical tools to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to antisemitism, and sharing first-hand accounts about the...
(JNS) — Activist groups with ties to the Chinese Communist Party have disrupted U.S. Senate hearings and “have engaged in violent, antisemitic riots in many cities across the United States,” Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote last week to Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general. A U.S. citizen living in Shanghai with ties to the CCP has funded many far-left and pro-Hamas organizations across America, according to reports in The New York Times and Washington Free Beacon. They apparently did not register under the F...
(JTA) — Jewish and Israeli leaders and lawmakers condemned what officials are investigating as an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, as did Gabrielle Giffords, a Jewish former congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt. A number of top Jewish lawmakers, many of them Democrats who oppose Trump’s bid to return to the presidency, immediately condemned the attack. “I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former Presi...
These two current situations have people questioning, “What’s going on?” Dan Pollack, ZOA director of Government Relations, will shed some light on what is happening concerning the Palestinians and the rift between the U.S. and Israeli governments at two separate meetings sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America – Florida. Both meetings will be held on Aug. 11. The first will be held at the Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation, 11200 S. Apopka Vineland Rd, at 1:30 p.m. Pollack will discuss “Is the rift between the U.S. and Israeli g...
A month after announcing $90 million in Palestinian aid, USAID will send $100 million more (JNS) — On June 5, Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, announced that the United States would donate $90 million in aid to Palestinians. Just over a month later, Power, who is visiting Israel, revealed that Washington plans to provide another $100 million in Palestinian aid. Power is meeting with Israeli officials “to discuss continued efforts to increase the flow of assistance across Gaza, including nee...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Israel had been “less than cooperative” with the United States in its efforts to deliver assistance to Palestinian civilians, adding to pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the terms the Biden administration has brokered to bring about an end to the war. “I met with most of the Arab leaders to try and get a consensus going as to what had to be done to get more aid and food and medicine into the Gaza Strip,” Biden said at a press conference on Thursday following a...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the latter travels to Washington later this month, according to CNN. The report, citing a source familiar with the process of hammering out the logistics, said the meeting will likely take place at the White House. The two leaders last met in mid-October, when Biden visited the Jewish state in the aftermath of Hamas’s terror invasion and massacre of 1,200 Israelis. Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress on July 24, at the inv...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Israel’s nine-month offensive in response to Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 has likely influenced the terrorist organization to ease its demands in ceasefire negotiations, according to several officials in the Middle East and the U.S., the Associated Press reports. Over the weekend, Hamas appeared to drop its longstanding insistence that Israel commit to ending the war as part of any ceasefire agreement. This change has sparked renewed optimism for progress in internationally mediated talks. Recent internal commu...
ADL launches $4b lawsuit on behalf of US Oct. 7 victims (JNS) — The Anti-Defamation League, together with Washington, D.C.-based law firm Crowell & Moring LLP, filed suit on Monday in U.S. federal court against Iran, Syria and North Korea on behalf of American victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, states that the three countries provided material support—including military, tactical and financial—to Hamas that enabled it to commit atrocities in Israel on Oct. 7. “Ira...
(JNS) - The Elmkayes family arrived in Israel from France last week, making Aliyah in honor of their son Binyamin, who fell battling Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. The family moved with the support of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and the Israel Ministry for Aliyah and Integration. They have chosen to live in Jerusalem "as a way to ensure that the light of our son's life will continue to shine despite his death," according to the family....
(JTA) — The closed-door trial of American Jewish reporter Evan Gershkovich began in Russia on Wednesday, 15 months after his arrest there on espionage charges widely regarded as spurious. The trial is being held in Yekaterinburg, the city where Gershkovich, now 32, was arrested while on assignment as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in March 2023. He was held in Moscow before being moved prior to the trial, and appeared in court with his head shaven, as is customary in Russia. Jewish activists and organizations have mobilized to support G...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met on Monday in Washington with White House adviser Amos Hochstein. The two men discussed the ongoing conflict against Hezbollah and the “actions required to achieve a framework that enables the safe return of Israeli communities to their homes in the north,” according to an Israeli readout. Gallant reiterated his commitment to changing the security situation on the northern border. He told Hochstein that the transition to “Phase 3” in the war against Hamas in Gaza will impact developme...
