Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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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...
(JNS) — Released Israeli hostage Amit Soussana on Monday recalled the sexual assault she experienced at the hands of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip during a White House event marking International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. “If someone had told me a few months ago while I was sitting in a dark room in Gaza tied up by my ankle and unable to move that I would be standing here today before you all, I would have thought that they were out of their mind,” she told attendees. “The sexual assault I experienced should...
(JNS) — Senior U.S. officials have assured Israel that Washington is prepared to “fully back” its ally in the event of a further escalation on the northern border, CNN reported on Friday, citing a Biden administration official. The Biden administration would offer Israel the security assistance it needs to fight Hezbollah, the senior official stated, adding, however, that the U.S. would not deploy American troops on the ground in such a scenario. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant took off for Washington overnight Saturday for meeti...
(JNS) — Hundreds of people gathered in Paris on Wednesday to demonstrate against Jew-hatred in the wake of the antisemitic rape of a 12-year-old girl that shocked the country over the weekend, local media reported. The rally in the French capital was organized by Collectif Nous Vivrons (“We Will Live Collective”), which was founded following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the ensuing wave of antisemitism in Europe. “This antisemitic rape is a continuation of a climate hostile to Jews, fueled in particular by irresponsible political...
Herzog: ‘We are utterly grateful to the United States of America’ (JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog met on Wednesday with a bipartisan delegation of members of the United States Congress, led by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “I say repeatedly, we are utterly grateful to the United States of America for standing with us in this war. And I’m very grateful to the president of the United States for being here at the beginning of the war and sending a clear message on behalf of the American people,” said Herzog. “And we also respect tremendously...
(JTA) - Nicole Tolkacheva, 52, has endured nearly two and a half years of war as her native Odesa gets pounded by Russian missiles. "Every morning, the city checks who and what survived the night," she said of Ukraine's storied Black Sea port city. "In this life, you don't know what's safer: running to the shelter and risking your life on the way or staying at home and risking being buried under the rubble." But one recent weekend, Tolkacheva got a reprieve from the war. She and 200 fellow Ukrai...
(JTA) - BERLIN - The success of German extremists in Sunday's European Parliament election has mainstream Jewish leaders and politicians worried. Some say they fear the country is veering into political territory that resembles the era just before the rise of the Nazis here nearly a century ago. The strong showing for far-right parties reflects worries about increasing numbers of Muslim refugees since 2015 in Germany. The Alternative for Germany Party stresses isolationism, takes an anti-EU and...
(JNS) — In his first meeting with the new Palestinian Authority prime minister on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the PA’s plans to pass a series of administrative reforms. Blinken stressed “the need for full and consistent implementation of those reforms to achieve the aspirations of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza” in his meeting in Sweimeh, Jordan, with Mohammad Mustafa, the P.A. prime minister, per a U.S. readout of the meeting. The U.S. secretary also reaffirmed the Biden administration’s “support...
(JNS) — Messages sent to mediators by Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar show that as far as he’s concerned, the more civilians die in Gaza the better. He sees such deaths as working “to his advantage,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The Journal reviewed “dozens of messages” Sinwar sent to ceasefire negotiators and others in which “he’s shown a cold disregard for human life and made clear he believes Israel has more to lose from the war than Hamas.” “We have the Israelis right where we want them,” said Sinwar in a message sent rec...
IDF has downed more than 150 drones since Oct. 7 (JNS) — Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, the Israel Defense Forces has intercepted over 150 drones using ground-based systems such as the Iron Dome, the military announced Monday night. Additional UAVs have been downed by fighter jets, according to the IDF. On Tuesday morning, the IDF announced the interception of a “suspicious aerial target” heading towards Israel “from the east.” No warning sirens were activated as the target did not cross into Israeli territory. Hours ear...
(JNS) — The U.S. House of Representatives voted 247 to 155 on Tuesday to pass H.R. 8282, the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act. Two Republicans voted “present” and 42 Democrats voted with Republicans for the bill. AIPAC stated that the bill responds to the “morally bankrupt and legally baseless attack against Israel” leveled by Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, a United Nations agency located in The Hague. Khan announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...
(JNS) — Western officials have expressed relief at the rescue by Israeli forces of four hostages Saturday, though some have also echoed Arab countries in condemning the operation in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp as a “massacre.” “Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv are free and safe today. We share the relief of their families and call for the release of all the remaining hostages,” tweeted E.U. High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. He went on to call for the implementat...
(JNS) - Israeli jujitsu fighter Yarin Shriki won a gold medal at the European Championship in Germany over the weekend, seven months after surviving the Hamas massacre at the Supernova music festival near Gaza. "I dedicate the victory to my good friend Yohai Ben Zecharia, may God avenge his blood, who was murdered on October 7, as well as to the speedy return of all the hostages," Shriki told Israel's Channel 14 News. Shriki entered the final against Belgian Florian Bayili, ranked No. 1 in the...
(JTA) — The next leader of AIPAC will be Elliot Brandt, who has served as a senior official of the pro-Israel lobby for decades and will take the helm shortly after the November elections — a move toward continuity as Israel faces volatile conflicts on multiple fronts. Brandt, currently the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s vice CEO, will succeed longtime CEO Howard Kohr, who is stepping down at year’s end after nearly 20 years leading the group. Under his leadership, the organization burgeoned and, in recent years, shifted to launchi...
