Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 18 of 18
(JNS) — The Republican Party led by President Donald Trump is launching an unprecedented fight to stamp out the outrageous rise in antisemitism on college campuses. The actions taken by the administration have been significant as they include ending $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University and putting 60 universities on notice that they are not protecting Jewish students and could lose federal funding if they don’t address that concern. The administration’s most recent action was the arrest and planned deportation of Mahmo...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently on trial for allegations of bribery and/or requests for better press coverage, which could be interpreted as normal official actions of a democratically elected leader. He is certainly not the first leader to be accused of bribery or corruption while in office. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a similar case back in 2016 when it found, in a unanimous 8-0 decision, in favor of former Virginia Gov. Robert (“Bob”) McDonnell. The U.S. Justice Department had charged McDonnell with corrupt...
(JNS) — It is clear that opposition to the ability of Jews to peacefully pray on the holiest site in Judaism and the site of the first two Jewish Temples, namely the Temple Mount, is prompted by the virulent antisemitism of the Palestinian Authority and the Kingdom of Jordan. Their opposition is based upon the antisemitic view that there is no Jewish connection to the site. The previous uniform Muslim view of the Temple Mount was expressed in 1925 by the Supreme Muslim Council in their published guide to the Temple Mount for tourists. It s...
(JNS) — There are increasing signs that the Jewish vote may be shifting away from the Democrats. A poll taken of New York voters in February showed that 53 percent of Jewish voters intend to vote for Donald Trump in November. A Bulwark article this month reported that Jewish donors appear to be moving towards the Republicans due to U.S. President Joe Biden’s troubling policies on the Israel-Hamas war. While there is a paucity of additional surveys on how Jews intend to vote in November, a Pew survey taken in February found that 89 percent of...
(JNS)— At the moment, 26 out of the 27 E.U. member states support an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas without requiring Hamas to unconditionally release all its hostages and surrender. At the same time, Hamas is demanding that Israel release 5,000 terrorists in exchange for the remaining hostages and exit Gaza, which would leave Hamas with a significant terrorist force intact. The sheer arrogance of such demands appears irrational, given the crushing military defeat Hamas is suffering and its likely destruction once Israel fully ent...
(JNS) — On Sunday, Jan. 8, in Davie, Fla., the organization Teach Florida had their legislative breakfast with members of the Florida legislature. More than 750 people attended to thank the group for its increased financial support for school choice. After the event ended, I spoke to Republican Rep. Randy Fine about my idea to combat the rise of antisemitism in Florida. Fine told me he had the same idea, but it could be helpful if I spoke to the Speaker of the Florida House about it. I approached the speaker and it was clear from his c...
(JNS) — The ongoing discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount needs to change. Currently, Jews are not allowed to bring prayer books or a Torah to the site, and cannot wear tefillin. Only recently have small groups of Jews been able to pray quietly during the five hours a day that the Mount is open to them. Despite the restrictions, 50,000 Jews visited the Temple Mount over the past year, approximately double that of the previous year. This is believed to be the highest number of Jews to visit the Mount since the Bar Kochba revolt a...
(JNS) — It was extraordinary to be among the more than 10,000 competitors overall, and one of more than 1,200 members of the U.S. team, at the Maccabiah games that just ended in Israel. Maccabiah divides competitors into age groups. I made the team for tennis players 55 and older (age groups begin at 35+ and are in five-year increments up to 80 and above). I was world ranked 736 in 1986 in singles, after playing Division One college tennis, but that was more than 35 years ago. Making the team and marching into the stadium with all the other a...
(JNS) — The United States and Iran are reportedly on the cusp of a new nuclear agreement. One of the last remaining issues is said to be whether or not the Biden administration removes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list. The administration is purportedly offering to do so on the condition that Iran makes some amorphous commitment to rein in its regional aggression and refrain from targeting Americans. In other words, as far as the Biden administration is concerned, it’s OK if the Iranians att...
(JNS) — It is frustrating to realize that even after two successive administrations (those of former U.S. President Donald Trump and his successor, Joe Biden) have recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — and the latter confirmed that the U.S. embassy, which the former moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, would remain there — the State Department is still flirting with the concept of locating what amounts to a symbolic consulate to the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem. This misguided effort is being pursued despite all the progress made...
(JNS) — A fundamental constitutional right in the United States, embodied in its first amendment, is the freedom of religion. Freedom of prayer is clearly part of freedom of religion. Part of freedom of prayer is the freedom to pray in public spaces. Anyone opposing the right of Jewish prayer, therefore, would be deemed antisemitic in America. This brings us to Israel. Before the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, I helped organize the first Jewish afternoon prayer service there, with no concern that it would spark any kind of c...
(JNS) — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris outrageously responded on Sept. 28 to a George Mason University student accusing Israel of committing “ethnic geocide” by saying, “… [Y]our voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth, should not be suppressed.” Conservative Rabbi David Wolpe aptly reacted: “Madame Vice President, the idea that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinians is not someone’s truth; it is someone’s lie, whether they know it or not. And it is pernicious, destructive and should not be elided or ignored by t...
(JNS) — The Biden administration is telling Israel that disagreements between them should remain private. Its double standard, like its hypocrisy, is astounding. Washington had no problem, for example, publicly criticizing Israel’s decision to proceed with its effective policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian-Arab terrorists who murder Jews and Americans. Earlier this month, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said, “We attach a good deal of priority to this, knowing that the home of an entire family shouldn’t be demolis...
(JNS) — Standing up to hatred is hard. When those who take a moral stand against it act together, however, it can be confronted to an impressive degree. What started as four Jewish Democrats in Congress attacking the comments of Rep. Ilhan Omar and other colleagues, not by name, as anti-Semitic, grew to 12 members specifically criticizing Omar, who had posted a tweet comparing the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban, accompanied by a video in which she is seen questioning Secretary of State Antony Blinken on America’s opp...
(JNS) — The U.S. Senate is facing a decision about whether to approve or reject the nomination of Colin Kahl for undersecretary of defense. Kahl was a leading voice against the move of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He inaccurately believed that it would lead to a violent blowup across the Middle East, when, in fact, it eventually led to the Abraham Accords. He was also a major advocate of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, during his service in the administration of former U.S. P...
(JNS) — The end of the great injustice to Jonathan Pollard has finally come. The video of the call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to him displayed the warmth that the convicted spy whose parole restrictions were just lifted deserved to receive from Israel after suffering terribly for 35 years. The small studio apartment in which he and his wife, Esther, reside shows that even during his past five years of “freedom,” Pollard was still being punished with onerous parole conditions. It is a great relief that the Justice Depar...
(JNS) — On March 7, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 183 condemning anti-Semitism. The resolution, which passed 407-23, was initiated in response to anti-Semitic comments made by Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. The text of the resolution, whose purpose was to “ensure safety” for the Jewish people, states that “accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel or to the Jewish community than to the U.S. constitutes anti-Semitism.” Clause 1 rejects the perpetuation of anti-Semitic stereotypes, including...
(JNS) — Given the racial strife in the United States during the past month, the news media appears determined to exploit every possible manifestation with partisan political purpose in mind. Or so it seems. A recent “news” story that captivated the nation’s headlines focused on the report of a noose found hanging in the garage stall of African-American NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace. It was, it appeared on merit, newsworthy. Until it wasn’t. But the lack of credibility of the story, and the obvious ramifications, continued to be exploited...
