Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Hebrew University of Jerusalem studies published in a pair of medical journals suggest that already-existing drugs can be repurposed to fight Covid, the Hebrew-language news sites reported Monday. The studies give fresh optimism that a solution to the pandemic will be found despite fears of variants. Rather than create a Covid vaccine from scratch, Professor Shai Arkin of Hebrew University’s Biological Chemistry Department wondered if any existing medications could be reprocessed to fight the virus. After screening 3,000 potential drugs, A...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces shelled targets in Lebanon on Tuesday morning after two rockets were launched from Southern Lebanon at northern Israel on Monday night. Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system downed one of the rockets, while the second fell in an open area, according to the military. No injuries or damage were reported, and the IDF Home Front Command issued no special guidelines for residents of the north. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned on Tuesday that Israel would not tolerate the current Lebanese crisis spi...
(JNS) - SpaceIL, an Israeli nonprofit organization that strives to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and dreamers through innovative space missions, announced this week that it has secured crucial funding towards the launch of the "Beresheet 2" Spacecraft mission in 2024 with the goal of sending Israel back to the moon. In 2019, with its first "Beresheet" spacecraft, the organization became the first private entity in history to reach the moon, thereby securing Israel's...
(JNS) Israel’s Security Cabinet voted on Sunday to withhold 597 million shekels ($182 million) from the tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority, in accordance with a terror finance law passed in 2018. The amount is equivalent to what the P.A. spent on “indirect support for terrorism” the previous year, according to an annual report prepared by the Defense Ministry’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing and submitted by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Israel collects taxes on behalf of the P.A. and transfers them on...
With local shops and artisanal businesses, stunning artwork, boutique wines, and scrumptious food, it is easy to see how Israel's Western Galilee region was welcoming over 2 million tourists annually before the pandemic. And with the tourism industry employing 40 percent of the Western Galilee's residents, the region is pinning its hopes on a swift post-pandemic recovery. Supporting the region's economic recovery is Jewish National Fund-USA through its Go North initiative. With the organization'...
(JNS) — Former Labor Party leader and Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog was sworn in as Israel’s 11th president on Wednesday, saying he would work to repair divisions within Israeli society. The ceremony took place at the Knesset in Jerusalem and marked the end of Reuven Rivlin’s seven-year term. The 60-year-old son of the sixth president of Israel, Chaim Herzog, also served as the country’s ambassador to the United Nations. He was sworn in using the same 107-year-old Torah that his father use...
Israel just inaugurated a new president. He is largely a ceremonial figure as the official “head of state.” He has a limited but very structured constitutional role. Nonetheless, amazingly, he is a Palestinian. Isaac “Bougie” Herzog is Israel’s 11th president. His father was also (Israel’s sixth) president, Chaim Herzog. He was also a Palestinian. How do I know this? Because I am a Palestinian too. “What?!!” you ask. “But Jonathan, you’re Jewish. How ...” Yes. Stick with me. The new President Herzog’s grandfather was Israel’s renowned first...
(JNS) — At the end of June, the new Israeli government led by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett approved 31 new building projects throughout Judea and Samaria. The projects were green-lighted by the subcommittee on Jewish “settlements” within the Civil Administration. A Civil Administration spokesperson shared the list of approvals with JNS, which include the construction or enlargement of public buildings within various communities, such as a new shopping mall in Mishor Adumim just outside of Jerusalem, and a school for students with...
(JNS) Passersby were treated to a striking sight outside Jerusalem's City Hall on Tuesday. One-hundred and fifty bright orange "ambucycles" – motorcycles and scooters equipped with lifesaving medical equipment – were lined in neat rows at Safra Square to celebrate the dedication of the Dr. Miriam & Sheldon G. Adelson Ambucycle Unit of United Hatzalah. Hundreds of United Hatzalah volunteers attended the event, and Channel 12 news anchor Ofer Hadad served as master of ceremonies. The 150 amb...
(JTA) — The Palestinian Authority canceled a deal that would have seen Israel give it 1 million COVID vaccine doses in exchange for a later shipment. The P.A. made the move because many of the doses were set to expire in the coming weeks, according to Haaretz. By time Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila announced the cancellation, 100,000 of the doses had already been delivered. The decision, made Thursday by Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and approved by Naftali Bennett, the prime minister, constituted a change of Israeli policy followin...
(JTA) — After being blasted by critics for staying in the Israeli prime minister’s residence well over a week past his ousting from the role, Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to leave — in another three weeks. He and his successor, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, released a joint statement Saturday that says Netanyahu will depart by July 10 and until then, no official state meetings will be held there. Netanyahu had stayed in power through a series of close elections over two years and multiple corruption cases that made him the first prime minis...
(Israel21c via JNS) — For the first time in 12 years, Israel’s Likud Party and its head, Benjamin Netanyahu, have moved from the prime minister’s seat to the opposition in the Knesset. The new government, sworn in Sunday night, brings into power a broad coalition of eight political parties, spanning the country’s political spectrum. Heading Israel’s 36th government is Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett, the 13th Israeli prime minister. Bennett was sworn in along with Yesh Atid Party leader Yair Lapid, who will serve as alternate prime min...
JTA - Israel's new prime minister is probably the first one who has stuck a wad of chewing gum to his head right before a public event. Naftali Bennett, who took office last week, is the first prime minister in the country's history to regularly wear a kippah, the Jewish ritual head covering (sometimes called a yarmulke or skullcap). Unlike his secular predecessors, he identifies as a religious Zionist and practices Modern Orthodox Judaism, which requires men to cover their heads. He's also...
(JNS) - "Israel, you are not alone. ... We represent 10 million-plus people in America and these people say to you Israel, we have your back." That was the message of Pastor John Hagee, chairman and founder of Christians United for Israel, the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States. Hagee was in Israel on a June 13-14 solidarity mission that included former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Haley, who served in that role from January 2017 to December 2018, stood...
(JNS) - Israel's 36th government passed a vote of confidence at a special Knesset session on Sunday night with Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett sworn in as the country's 13th prime minister. Bennett has replaced now-former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held the position for the past 12 years and who served another three years prior to that, from 1996 to 1999, making him the longest-serving premier in Israel's history. With the transfer of power, Netanyahu became the head of the...
(JNS) — Israel’s Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations Gilad Erdan met with senior leadership of the Associated Press on Monday in New York, where he told the media outlet that Hamas was using the Gaza media tower to jam Iron Dome batteries in Israel. “The unit was developing an electronic jamming system to be used against the Iron Dome defense system,” said Erdan, officially informing for the first time why Hamas operating in that building posed such an imminent threat to Israeli civilians and was prioritized by the Israel...
Hours before a vote to oust him, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly accused President Joe Biden of endangering Israel’s security by taking a soft line on Iran. He also compared Biden’s Iran policy to the refusal of the U.S. to bomb the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. Netanyahu said that the Biden administration had asked him to keep their disagreements on Iran private, Axios reported, but that he refused to do so, valuing his hard line on Iran over smooth relations with the United States. The prime minister dep...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The years of archaeological excavations Israel has conducted on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City have yielded no proof that a Jewish Temple ever existed in the city, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told Al Jazeera on Monday. When asked about current tensions in Jerusalem, Shtayyeh said that Jerusalem was at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “Since 1967 and the occupation of the West Bank, Israel has carried out a series of excavations underneath al-Aqsa mosque which haven...
(JNS) - They're baaaaack! If you're in Israel this month, you can't miss the clusters of them downing falafel on Jerusalem's Ben-Yehuda Street, cooling off in the Dead Sea, climbing Masada at sunrise or slipping prayers between the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. After more than a year of pandemic silence, the Birthrighters have returned with all the gusto of young adults who'd waited out the year of coronavirus restrictions with visions of Israel dancing in their heads. Take Conor...
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned violent rhetoric on “every side” of the political spectrum Sunday but also claimed that Israel’s incoming government, which will replace him, is the result of “the greatest electoral fraud in the history of the country.” Netanyahu’s speech came as the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service warned of a rise in rhetoric that encourages violence. A pro-Netanyahu lawmaker compared two of his rivals to “terrorists” facing a “death sentence,” and members of the incoming coalition have...
(JTA) - Benjamin Netanyahu will no longer be Israel's prime minister, as his political opponents announced Wednesday night that they have formed a coalition that will replace him, pending a vote in Israel's parliament. The new coalition, dubbed the "change bloc," is an ideologically broad alliance that spans the Israeli political right, center and left. For the first time in Israeli history, it will include an Arab-Israeli party, not as an external supporter of the government, but as a full memb...
(JTA) - In the days before Benjamin Netanyahu's rival lawmakers announced that they had formed a government to replace the longtime prime minister, one fled her home with her partner and baby after receiving what she called "severe threats" against their safety. The threats to Tamar Zandberg of the left-wing Meretz party included a fake notice of her death that circulated on social media. Zandberg wasn't the only Netanyahu opponent to receive death threats. So did Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali...
JERUSALEM - Isaac Herzog, former minister, chairman of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition, was elected by the Knesset (parliament) to serve as Israel's 11th president. Herzog currently serves as the chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel. Herzog was elected with the support of 87 out of the 120 Members of Knesset and his tenure will begin on July 9. President-elect Herzog noted: "For over two decades I have fulfilled the mission of my life, to serve my people and...
The Iron Dome, Israel’s miraculous missile defense system literally saves the lives of millions of Israeli and Arab civilians during this most recent military conflict. The unique defense system and how it came to be created is the focus of a documentary series aptly called “Under the Iron Dome,” by Dinnar Productions. The three-part series is making its worldwide debut only on IZZY, a TV streaming platform that exclusively features Israeli programming for global audiences. Viewers can stream the on-demand via IZZY on iOS, Android, Apple TV, A...
(Israel Hayom and JNS staff via JNS) - Israel's National Insurance Institute (NII) is proposing compensation in the amount of 100,000 shekels ($30,800) for each of the families who lost loved ones in the Lag B'Omer stampede at Mount Meron. A total of 45 participants in the festivities, including children as young as 9, were killed. The investigation into the Mount Meron disaster is still underway, and a government commission of inquiry has not yet been formed, though Israeli lawmakers on Monday...
