Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — A group of 99 Jewish clergy from across the United States signed a statement calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire deal that would free the remaining hostages held by Hamas. The signatories of the clergy statement include well-known rabbis spanning the country and the Jewish denominational spectrum. The list includes Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Renewal and Secular Humanistic leaders. The statement comes as a new round of negotiations is set to begin Thursday in Qatar u...
US, UK again attack Houthi targets in Yemen (JNS) — American and British forces carried out airstrikes on Houthi targets on Yemen’s Kamaran Island on Monday, Iranian state media reported. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that there was no immediate information on casualties or damage following the coalition strike. U.S. Central Command—the geographic command responsible for the Middle East—and the British Ministry of Defense did not immediately confirm the airstrikes. Kamaran, Yemen’s largest island in the Red Sea, is located off the p...
(JNS) — The Kremlin regards the creation of a Palestinian state as a top priority, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas during their first in-person encounter since Gaza terrorists carried out the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The two men last met in October 2022, on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia in Kazakhstan. “We believe that in order to secure lasting and stable peace in the region, it is imperative to implement all...
(JTA) — “What are these for?” the security guard at the Dubai airport asked as three others inspected my bris kit — the bag of supplies I carry when I perform circumcisions on Jewish baby boys. Whenever I travel for work and I’m away from Israel for only a short time, I never check a bag, so this can make for interesting encounters at the X-ray machines. There are times I’ve lied and said I make jewelry, but since circumcision is a cultural norm in the United Arab Emirates and other Muslim countries, I decided to come clean. “I perform circu...
(JTA) - The 2024 Paris Olympics conclude on Sunday, and at least 21 Jewish athletes from the United States, Australia and Israel will return home with some new hardware: The tally includes six golds (with one athlete winning two), seven silvers and five bronzes. The medal total of 18 is more than all but 15 countries. Israel in particular has racked up a historic medal collection, with seven total medals, its most ever in a single Olympics. Israel won three medals on Aug. 3 alone, its most...
(JNS) — The United Nations announced Aug. 5 that nine staff members of the scandal-plagued UNRWA organization “may have been involved” in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, as its internal investigation into Israeli allegations came to a close. The U.N. Internal Oversight Services handled the months-long fact-finding investigation in the wake of Jerusalem’s stunning allegations that a number of UNRWA employees had taken part in the atrocities of Oct. 7. The contention had led to 16 countries suspending assistance to UNRWA,...
Israeli company installs water-generation machine in Vatican City (JNS) — Watergen, an Israeli company specializing in water-generation technology, has installed one of its machines at the Office of Papal Charities in Vatican City. The machine, which produces clean drinking water from the air, will provide Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and his team with a sustainable water source on-site. The installation reflects a shared commitment to addressing global water scarcity. Krajewski, who leads the office with a focus on humanitarian aid, will b...
(JNS) — A squadron of United States Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets arrived in the Middle East on Thursday to “mitigate the possibility of regional escalation by Iran or its proxies,” the U.S. military confirmed. In an earlier statement, U.S. Central Command, the geographic command responsible for the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South Asia, said that the planes were dispatched to “address” Tehran’s anticipated attack. The statement, which was shared on X, was modified to read “mitigate” some 30 minutes after it was fi...
(JNS) — U.S. border agents have arrested three Palestinian Arab illegals at the southern border on suspicion of terror ties. One of the men had “salacious photos” on his phone, including one picture of a masked man holding a rifle, federal law enforcement sources said, according to The New York Post. Federal authorities also caught one illegal immigrant from Turkey who is suspected of ties to terror groups. “The migrants were among groups of dozens of migrants who turned themselves in to border agents at the San Diego sector,” sources t...
(JTA) — Evan Gerhskovich, the American Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter who has been held in Russian prison for more than a year, is now free, the White House announced Thursday. Gershkovich, 32, was freed as part of a massive, 26-person prisoner exchange that included several prominent people jailed by Russia. The list of those released includes Russian-British activist and journalist Kara-Murza, who is also Jewish, as well as former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. The secretive swap occurred in Ankara, Turkey, between Russia and the United S...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — A Lufthansa flight from Munich to Israel made an unscheduled landing in Larnaca, Cyprus on Thursday morning due to heightened tensions in the region. The airline gave passengers the option of disembarking in Larnaca but did not offer them any assistance in completing their journey to Israel and informed them that their luggage would be returning to Munich with the plane, according to Israel’s Channel 12 News. Some 20 Israelis disembarked without their luggage, with the rest returning to Munich, according to the rep...
(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...
