Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Israeli-American terror victim laid to rest
(JNS) — Elan Ganeles’s funeral was held in Ra’anana on Wednesday afternoon, two days after terrorists shot him near the Beit Ha’arava Junction close to Jericho in the Jordan Valley.
“He was the biggest gift in our lives. He wanted so much to see the world and all its aspects,” said Elan’s mother, Carolyn, at the funeral. “Our loss is a loss for the world—of such a bright, brilliant, emerging star,” she continued.
“He was so loved, he will be missed so much. We feel like a part of our being has been taken from us.”
The gunmen fled the scene before at some stage setting their car on fire and continuing on foot into Jericho, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
Ganeles, a native of Connecticut, served in the Israel Defense Forces from July 2016 to August 2018. He was living in Manhattan and had traveled to the Jewish state to celebrate a friend’s wedding.
His family flew in from the United States for the funeral.
Ganeles attended the Hebrew Academy in West Hartford and was a 2104 graduate of the Hebrew High School of New England, now part of the New England Jewish Academy. While a student at Columbia University, Ganeles worked as a geospatial analyst at the university’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network.
Ganeles’s murder came hours after brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, slain by a Palestinian terrorist in Samaria the previous day, were buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Hallel, 21, and Yagel, 19, were shot at point-blank range as they drove through the village of Huwara near where they lived.
US expects Israel to ensure ‘full accountability’ for Huwara riot
(JNS) — The U.S. administration said on Monday that it expects Israel to prosecute those who participated in the Huwara riot following the murder of two Israeli siblings in the Palestinian town and to compensate those whose homes and property were damaged or destroyed.
“We expect the Israeli government to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks in addition to compensation for the loss of homes and property,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price during a press briefing.
He called the Sunday night riot by hundreds of Israeli Jews in the Palestinian town of Huwara “completely unacceptable.”
Price also denounced the “horrific” terror attack that claimed the lives of two Israeli brothers as they drove through Huwara, as well as the terror shootingon Monday night that claimed the life of a 27-year-old Israeli-American Elan Ganeles.
“Accountability and justice should be pursued with equal rigor in all cases of extremist violence and equal resources dedicated to prevent such attacks and bring those responsible to justice,” said Price.
Noam Party MK Avi Maoz resigns as deputy minister
(JNS) — Knesset member Avi Maoz resigned his post as deputy minister on Monday, citing a lack of intent on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to honor its coalition agreement.
However, the right-wing lawmaker and head of the Noam Party said that while he was stepping down as minister, he would continue to vote with the coalition, which has a 64-seat majority, in the Knesset.
In his resignation letter to Netanyahu, Maoz wrote that he had “found that there is no real intention to uphold the coalition agreement” regarding the creation of an office to bolster Jewish identity, which Maoz was to have headed.
An outspoken opponent of LGBTQ rights and of women serving in the army, Maoz’s appointment, which was widely covered in the international press, was met with outrage by some Israeli and American Jews, especially in liberal circles.
Among the unsuccessful initiatives he sought to enact during his short stint as minister were the reintroduction of the labels “father” and “mother” on official government forms, instead of the more progressive “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” adopted during the Lapid-Bennett government, and a change in state policy towards the egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall.
Maoz had told associates early on that he would resign if was not able to effect change.
The office, which came with a two-year 440 million shekel ($125 million) budget, will now revert back to the Education Ministry.
Opposition lawmakers welcomed his resignation, with former Social Equality Minister Meirav Cohen (Yesh Atid) tweeting: “One less homophobe in the government.”
US expects Israel to ensure ‘full accountability’ for Huwara riot
(JNS) — The U.S. administration said on Monday that it expects Israel to prosecute those who participated in the Huwara riot following the murder of two Israeli siblings in the Palestinian town and to compensate those whose homes and property were damaged or destroyed.
“We expect the Israeli government to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks in addition to compensation for the loss of homes and property,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price during a press briefing.
He called the Sunday night riot by hundreds of Israeli Jews in the Palestinian town of Huwara “completely unacceptable.”
Price also denounced the “horrific” terror attack that claimed the lives of two Israeli brothers as they drove through Huwara, as well as the terror shootingon Monday night that claimed the life of a 27-year-old Israeli-American Elan Ganeles.
“Accountability and justice should be pursued with equal rigor in all cases of extremist violence and equal resources dedicated to prevent such attacks and bring those responsible to justice,” said Price.
Sara Netanyahu freed by police after protesters trap her in hair salon
(JNS) — Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had to be rescued by hundreds of police on Wednesday night after being trapped for hours by anti-judicial reform protesters in Tel Aviv.
The incident began when protesters identified Sara Netanyahu entering a hair salon. Thousands of protesters converged on the scene, shouting “she won’t be allowed to leave the barber shop” and “shame.”
Police first blocked the entrance to the hair salon the premier’s wife was in to prevent protesters from entering, while mounted officers were called to the scene to reinforce the perimeter. Clashes broke out between the protesters and police.
Security forces were able to extract her from the site at around 11 p.m.
While the incident was still ongoing, Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the protesters on Twitter: “The anarchistic activists under the leadership of [opposition leader Yair] Lapid continue to cross red lines. They are currently harassing and threatening my wife in Tel Aviv. I call on Lapid and the opposition to stop this immediately and condemn this shameful, unprecedented act.”
Netanyahu spoke out against the violent protests roiling the country earlier that evening in a televised address to the nation.
“Freedom of protest is not a license to drag the country into anarchy and chaos. A sovereign state cannot tolerate anarchy,” he said.
Jewish groups ask Homeland Security to re-parole Ukrainian refugees
(JNS) — Some 20,000 Ukrainians who came to the United States as refugees are slated to have their paroles expire in March and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has yet to extend their temporary status beyond one year.
“We now urgently request that you update key policies to address the challenges facing some Ukrainian humanitarian parolees residing in the U.S.,” the Jewish Federations of North America, HIAS and the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies wrote to Alejandro Mayorkas, homeland security secretary.
“Our agencies and affiliates have expressed concerns that the issue hasn’t yet been resolved, especially since parole is so close to lapsing for so many Ukrainians,” Alisa Bodner, press relations manager at the Jewish Federations of North America, told JNS. “That being said, the department has been responsive and we are hopeful that the issue will be addressed in a timely manner.”
In the letter, the three organizations asked the department to establish a clear, timely and automatic re-parole process. “Individuals with parole live in fear of their status expiring, but they do not know what the correct process is when they receive conflicting information,” the organizations wrote.
They also asked that the department automatically extend work authorizations and eligibility for benefits and extend temporary protected status for Ukraine, set to expire on Oct. 19.
“The American Jewish community has a long history of successfully resettling and supporting refugees,” the organizations wrote. “As many Jewish Americans have Ukrainian ancestry, our community has been directly affected by the Ukraine crisis.”
US State Department offers $5 million reward for info on al-Shabaab leader
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million for information about the whereabouts of Ali Mohamed Rage, also known as Ali Dheere, a senior leader of al-Shabaab. The department’s announcement on Tuesday came nearly 15 years after it declared al-Shabaab a Foreign Terrorist Organization in March 2008.
The Mogadishu-born Rage has planned attacks in Kenya and Somalia, according to the department, which labeled him a specially designated global terrorist in August 2021. The U.N. Security Council has also sanctioned Rage.
“Al-Shabaab is responsible for terrorist attacks in Kenya, Somalia and neighboring countries that resulted in loss of life, including of U.S. citizens,” stated Foggy Bottom. “The terrorist group continues to plot, plan and conspire to commit terrorist acts against the United States, U.S. interests and foreign partners.”
In 2019, Al-Shabaab said its deadly attack in Nairobi, Kenya, was a response to then-President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
An American Jew, Jason Spindler, was among the nearly two-dozen people killed.
Map of military bases, police stations has ‘hallmarks of Iranian terror’
(JNS) — The “Mapping Project” that launched last summer, identifying locations of Jewish and pro-Israel entities in Massachusetts, as well as law-enforcement sites, drew widespread condemnation, including for being “another example of old-fashioned Jew-hatred using a modern platform.”
A new report from the Zachor Legal Institute think tank suggests that Iran is connected to the project, which maps not only Jewish sites, but also 271 police stations, nine military bases and installations, in addition to Homeland Security, FBI and Secret Service offices and sites connected to weapons manufacturers with ties to the U.S. government.
Another 17 U.S. nongovernmental organizations have endorsed the report, according to a Zachor release.
The report “argues that the outsized focus placed on the American security apparatus indicates that the map is not domestic in origin, but might be a product of a foreign agenda and that the chief suspect is the Islamic Republic of Iran,” per the think tank.
Zachor added that Iranian state-run PressTV has praised the “Mapping Project,” which has collaborated with JISR Collective, which has ties to the Iranian government.
“There is no logical explanation for why the map was published other than to serve as a kill list for extremists to use when targeting United States’ national security infrastructure and prominent Jews in America,” stated Marc Greendorfer, president of Zachor.
“One only needs to look at the increasingly frequent violent attacks against law enforcement, homeland security and Jews in the United States to see that whoever is behind this project is trying to promulgate violence to promote an anti-American agenda,” he added. “We believe that this has all the hallmarks of Iranian terror.”
Israeli researcher, colleagues discovers new snake family
(JNS) — Using high-resolution magnetic imaging focused on snake skulls and DNA testing, Belgian, Finnish, Hong Kong, Israeli, Madagascan and U.S. researchers have identified a new family of snakes.
There are just three species of micrelapidae—one in Israel and nearby areas and two in Kenya and Tanzania, per a Tel Aviv University release.
Shai Meiri, a zoology professor at Tel Aviv University, helped conduct the study, which was published in March in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. It states that the small snakes, which tend to have black and yellow rings, “diverged from the rest of the evolutionary tree of snakes about 50 million years ago,” the release states.
Many assume that large groups of animals tend to already be known to scientists, Meiri stated in the release. “But sometimes, we still encounter surprises, and this is what happened with micrelapid snakes,” he wrote.
“For years, they were considered members of the largest snake family, the Colubridae, but multiple DNA tests conducted over the last decade contradicted this classification,” added Meiri. “Snake researchers around the world have tried to discover which family these snakes do belong to, to no avail. In this study, we joined the scientific effort.”
Researchers believe that the snakes in question likely originated in Africa. As Meiri noted, “a discovery of a new family is quite a rare occurrence in modern science.”
Israeli-American terror victim laid to rest
(JNS) — Elan Ganeles’s funeral was held in Ra’anana on Wednesday afternoon, two days after terrorists shot him near the Beit Ha’arava Junction close to Jericho in the Jordan Valley.
“He was the biggest gift in our lives. He wanted so much to see the world and all its aspects,” said Elan’s mother, Carolyn, at the funeral. “Our loss is a loss for the world—of such a bright, brilliant, emerging star,” she continued.
“He was so loved, he will be missed so much. We feel like a part of our being has been taken from us.”
The gunmen fled the scene before at some stage setting their car on fire and continuing on foot into Jericho, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
Ganeles, a native of Connecticut, served in the Israel Defense Forces from July 2016 to August 2018. He was living in Manhattan and had traveled to the Jewish state to celebrate a friend’s wedding.
His family flew in from the United States for the funeral.
Ganeles attended the Hebrew Academy in West Hartford and was a 2104 graduate of the Hebrew High School of New England, now part of the New England Jewish Academy. While a student at Columbia University, Ganeles worked as a geospatial analyst at the university’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network.
Ganeles’s murder came hours after brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, slain by a Palestinian terrorist in Samaria the previous day, were buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Hallel, 21, and Yagel, 19, were shot at point-blank range as they drove through the village of Huwara near where they lived.
Palestinian who killed Robert Kennedy denied parole for 16th time
(JNS) — Sirhan Sirhan, the Jerusalem-born Palestinian who assassinated then-U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, was denied parole on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
A review board ruled in 2021 that Sirhan was eligible for parole, but was overruled by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“After carefully reviewing the case, including records in the California State Archives, I have determined that Sirhan has not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community,” Newsom wrote in an op-ed at the time explaining his decision.
Sirhan subsequently sued the state, arguing the governor’s action was illegal.
It was not immediately clear how Wednesday’s ruling would impact the lawsuit.
Sirhan was convicted of murdering Kennedy, 42, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, just minutes after Kennedy had given his victory speech for winning the California Democratic presidential primary. Kennedy died in hospital the following day.
His older brother, former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.
Sirhan has claimed he has no recollection of shooting Robert Kennedy, although he is on record as saying that he was motivated to kill him due to his support for Israel.
He was sentenced to death in 1969, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison following California’s banning of the death penalty.
Sirhan is currently imprisoned at California’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego.
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