Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The Israeli government on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal to oppose a U.N. resolution promoting recognition of a Palestinian state. “No reward will be given for the terrible massacre of Oct. 7, which 80 percent of the Palestinians, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, support,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initiated the proposal. “We will not allow them to establish a terrorist state from which they can attack us even more,” he added. “No one will prevent us, Israel, from exercising our basic right to defe...
(JNS) - "Somehow I know that Shani attended the Supernova festival on October 7 for a reason. Had she not, a lot more people would have died," Aviel Gabbay told JNS on Sunday. Aviel's sister Shani Gabbay was murdered by Hamas terrorists and later mistakenly buried along with another victim. "My father [Yaakov] would not have driven three hours from Yokneam [in the Lower Galilee] to Kibbutz Re'im [near Gaza] to look for her and would not have saved many others in the process," Aviel said. Shani...
(JTA) — The Israeli military has recovered the bodies of three people who were killed in the massacre at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, including Shani Louk, whose body was photographed being carried away in a pickup truck by Hamas terrorists. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, said Friday evening in a press conference that the three were killed on the day of the Hamas massacres that launched the war. Like other hostages held by Hamas, their bodies were taken into the Gaza Strip as leverage. “According to the cre...
(JNS) - "Our unity gives us as much protection as our army. We need it just as much to secure our existence," Sapir Cohen, who spent 55 days in Hamas captivity, told JNS on Monday. On Oct. 6, on the eve of Simchat Torah, Cohen and her boyfriend, Alex Trufanov, drove to Kibbutz Nir Oz to spend the holiday with his parents. The next morning, they woke up to loud explosions. "We hid under the bed. There was nowhere else to hide. Then, I heard screams of 'Allahu Akbar.' Terrorists were yelling and t...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - The International Bible Contest, an Israeli Independence Day tradition that features contestants from all over the world, will be held at the Jerusalem Theater on Tuesday with 16 youths competing-12 from the Diaspora and four from Israel. All will vie for the title of World Bible Champion. The final list of contestants was determined through a qualifying exam held during a Bible camp preceding the event. As part of that process, contestants tour the country, meet...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday that the Israel Defense Forces would "keep going until the end" to defeat Hamas, as the Jewish state marked its first Memorial Day since the Oct. 7 massacre. "Pain is everywhere, but so is light. A fighter whose two legs were amputated told me: 'It is important for us to know that we are going to defeat them,' not to give up...keep going until the end, until victory," said Netanyahu at the ceremony on Mount Herzl. "This is a...
(JNS) — The decision by Israel’s War Cabinet to order the Israel Defense Forces to seize Rafah Crossing is strategically significant, as it will negatively impact Hamas’s ability to smuggle weapons and people back and forth from neighboring Sinai. The crossing is part of the wider Philadelphi Corridor running along the Gaza-Egypt border, which has for years been a central supply line for Hamas smuggling. The IDF’s entry into Rafah also puts pressure on Hamas’s leadership in the tunnels under the city, demonstrating that Israel is not deterred...
(JNS) - Families of deceased hostages whose bodies are still being held by Hamas in Gaza carried an empty coffin through Jerusalem on Thursday to raise awareness of their plight and call for the return of their loved ones. "I am attending this rally because we, the families of deceased hostages, are a unique group," Ruby Chen, the father of American-Israeli dual citizen Sgt. Itay Chen, 19, told JNS on Thursday. Itay, from Netanya, was stationed at the Nahal Oz army base as part of a tank unit...
(JTA) - Israeli police arrested Ayelet Waldman, a Jewish American author, while she was with a group trying to deliver relief to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Waldman, who is Israeli-born, was one of seven people arrested Friday morning at a protest action organized by Rabbis for Human Rights, and one of five Americans. Two were released before Shabbat, organizers said, but Waldman was still in custody at the police station in Ashkelon, a city near the Gaza border. Her husband Michael Chabon,...
(JNS) - Israel Bonds has surpassed $3 billion in global sales in the seven months since Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre, a sum almost three times greater than the company's recent annual average. "On Oct. 7, we initiated what is the most powerful and successful campaign in support of the state of Israel in the history of Israel Bonds since 1951," Israel Bonds president and CEO Dani Naveh told JNS. "My managerial task, in collaboration with my amazing team, was to elevate Israel Bonds sales to a much hig...
(JNS) - Israeli Lior Rudaeff was declared dead on Tuesday night, exactly seven months after he was presumed to have been abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre. A statement from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak did not provide additional details. Rudaeff, an ambulance driver and volunteer medic, fought alongside the kibbutz's security team during the Hamas invasion. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that Rudaeff was killed on Oct. 7 and his body is being held in the Gaza Strip,...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel’s war cabinet unanimously voted to approve an invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, shortly after Hamas said it had agreed to a ceasefire deal with Israel. The announcements were two landmarks in a whirlwind — and confusing — day of diplomacy and warfare following months of speculation and negotiations. As of Monday night Israel time, both the fighting and diplomacy were ongoing. Israeli officials said the proposal Hamas accepted was different from the one Israel had agreed to. In its statement, the war cabinet said th...
(JNS) - "It all started after I joined the fight on Oct. 7 against Hamas terrorists invading the Israeli communities bordering the Gaza Strip," says Nimrod Palmach, CEO of Israel-is, which partners with producer Stephen D. Smith in the virtual reality "Be the Witness" initiative. Israel-is is an NGO dedicated to improving Israel's image. Part of the "Survived to Tell" project, "Be the Witness" features the stories of five survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre. Participants in the project wear...
(JNS) — Israeli security forces arrested a Palestinian suspect in the April 12 terrorist murder of 14-year-old shepherd Binyamin Achimeir following an overnight raid in the Binyamin region of Samaria. “Overnight, in a joint operation of the Shin Bet, the Israel Police and the IDF, Ahmed Duabsha, 21 years old, a resident of the village of Duma in the Binyamin Brigade [area of deployment], was arrested by the soldiers of the Yamam [Border Police National Counter-Terrorism Unit] and the Shin Bet,” said the statement. Achimeir’s body was found by a...
(JNS) — The only moral and rational conclusion that can be drawn from the horrors of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre is that Israel must regain control of the Gaza Strip, Knesset member Amit Halevi (Likud) told JNS. “Israel had disengaged from Gaza, it was essentially a Palestinian state. The outcome was Oct. 7,” Halevi said on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Conference Hungary on Thursday. “From the river to the sea, Israel will be free: this should be the slogan chanted at Columbia University, Harvard, Yale and Berkeley,...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - The war in Gaza brought with it countless stories of heroism. Split-second decisions altered lives, demarcating a clear divide between before and after. However, many decisions evaded the spotlight. While they will not be enshrined in battle narratives, they bear witness to our existence here, the conflicts we wage, and the character of our military and people, particularly the younger generation. In recent months, Israel Hayom has chronicled the experiences of lone...
(JTA) - Israel's military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, resigned, saying he assumed responsibility for the intelligence failures that failed to prevent the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion that launched the current war. The resignation letter Haliva sent Monday to the Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Herzi Halevi, is unusual in that he assumed responsibility for the failures even before the launch of a state inquiry into the missteps that left Israel unprepared for the attack. "The intel...
(JNS) — On Saturday, Hamas released a video of two hostages—Omri Miran, 46, and Keith Siegel, 64. While the edited, three-minute-long video is undated, Miran says in it that he has been held captive for 202 days and Siegel mentions the Passover holiday, indicating that the video was filmed recently. The two men identify themselves, speak directly to their families and express their hopes for a deal to release the rest of the hostages. Siegel, a dual Israeli and U.S. citizen, was kidnapped alo...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that an imminent military operation in Rafah would be suspended if a hostage release deal is secured, calling it the top priority to free the remaining abductees taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. “The release of the hostages is the top priority for us,” the member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet told Channel 12, adding that “if there will be a deal, we will suspend the operation” in the last Hamas bastion in southernmost Gaza. Katz is not a member of the War Cabin...
(JNS) - The Israel Police has established a dedicated team to deal with the increasing phenomenon of left-wing anarchists who are undermining security and stability in Judea and Samaria, Ynet reported Tuesday. The special division, which includes detectives from the investigation and intelligence unit who work in cooperation with immigration officers and officials from the Population and Immigration Authority, works under the command of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir....
(JNS) — Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich aims to legalize 68 outposts in Judea and Samaria and has instructed various ministries to prepare to provide them with public services. Smotrich is also a minister in the Defense Ministry with broad authority over civilian issues in the disputed territories. “We welcome the progress on the approvals for 68 ‘young communities’ in Judea and Samaria. These are communities established years ago and sanctioned by the country,” Yesha Council Chairman Shlomo Ne’eman said. The council is the umbrell...
(JNS) - The Israeli Cabinet on Wednesday unanimously approved a five-year strategic plan to rebuild, develop and strengthen the western Negev communities devastated during Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist invasion. The 19-billion-shekel ($5 billion) program, which will be carried out by the recently created Tekuma ("Revival") Authority, will see investment in housing, infrastructure, education, employment opportunities, medical services and more, the Prime Minister's Office said. "The Hamas terrorists...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday night shared new footage showing Yarden Bibas, the father of Kfir and Ariel and the husband of Shiri, being abducted by Hamas terrorists to the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. The 40-second video segment shows a bloodied Yarden being kidnapped by armed terrorists on a motorcycle. A large crowd of Palestinians and journalists gathers around the hostage, taking photos and abusing him. “The world must not remain silent in the face of such crimes. Bring them home now!” Herzog wrote on X. The world must...
(JNS) — The Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) denied a report on Sunday by the British Daily Mail that intelligence gathered by Israel’s internal security service is leading to fears that only 40 hostages out of the 133 still being held by Hamas in Gaza are alive. According to the report from the London-based tabloid, a dwindling number of captives have survived after 253 were kidnapped during the Hamas-led rampage across the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7. The report cites the Shin Bet and anonymous sources to make the claim. “The publi...
Natalie Sopinsky lives in Suissa, Israel, in the southeast Negev. She shares her daily life with Heritage readers, her thoughts, her reality in the land she loves. Welcome to Israel ... where we allow terrorist murderers free reign. They have education, jobs, families, possessions...they are normal citizens. So why do they hate us so much? What pushes a mother to kill? What causes a mother to be a killer, to forfeit her life, to lead a life in jail? Why attempt to kill an Israeli soldier? As we...
