Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 52
(JNS) — Jews have long been champions of freedom of speech in the United States, yet they often have not hesitated to advocate canceling speakers who are antisemitic or virulently anti-Israel. Many Jews feel that those who spread hatred against them or Israel should face consequences, but they are frequently uneasy about the mechanisms used to deliver those consequences. This ambivalence was true before Donald Trump returned to the White House but has become more prevalent since his administration began taking aggressive steps against a...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likes to cite polls that indicate American support for Israel, but while it might not concern him, the data suggests the bipartisan consensus that has helped sustain the special relationship has completely collapsed. Sympathy for Israel has severely eroded, driven by the cratering of support from the Democratic Party. While political backing in Washington still holds firm, public sentiment is shifting in ways that could have long-term consequences for Israel. For decades, the most consistent m...
(JNS) — With all of the controversies surrounding President Donald Trump, it’s astonishing that something as trivial as a hyphen in “anti-Semitism” has caused umbrage. Yet some Jewish leaders, including Deborah Lipstadt, former President Joe Biden’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, have found the change in spelling from “antisemitism” concerning. Lipstadt, a leading proponent of removing the hyphen, expressed dismay: “This decision makes no sense. I cannot fathom why there would be this reversal.” For those whose memories do...
(JNS) — It was interesting to watch the bemused look on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s face during a Washington press conference as President Donald Trump floated his harebrained idea of deporting all Gazans. Yet the man who insists he is “not a vassal” quickly pivoted to praise Trump for an idea “that could change history.” Trump deserves credit for apparently abandoning the two-state solution embedded in his first-term Mideast peace plan. Some praised him for thinking outside the box, but creativity alone doesn’t make an idea...
(JNS) — Say what you will about former President Joe Biden’s policies, but he was the most knowledgeable U.S. president on the Middle East. Donald Trump, on the other hand, may be among the least informed. Ironically, he is now proposing the one move Biden should have made after the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023—relocating Gaza’s civilians to Egypt and Jordan—that could have saved thousands of Palestinian lives and averted the humanitarian issues. The problem? Trump’s plan is too late, and if implemented...
(JNS) — For months, President Joe Biden’s detractors predicted that he would deliver a last-minute betrayal of Israel, akin to President Barack Obama’s infamous abstention on a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in 2016. When the “surprise” came, it was not the one critics anticipated. Rather than silence them, however, their outrage was fueled by the unexpected admissions of his secretary of state. First, we were told Biden would pull an Obama immediately after the election in November. Instead, he defied ex...
(JNS) — Do you remember when universities were institutions that taught us how to think critically rather than telling us what to think and when journalism schools emphasized ethics and the importance of truth-seeking? If those days ever existed, they seem long gone, particularly regarding coverage of the Middle East. Amnesty International is mistaken for a human-rights organization when it is nothing more than a media whore engaged in National Enquirer-like sensationalism. It has mastered the art of generating headlines and stirring outrage w...
Two months remain before Donald Trump takes office and a lot can happen in the Middle East during that time. Israel dodged one imminent bullet when the Biden administration decided to ignore the calls for it to cut off arms deliveries to Israel. Though aid agencies and critics insisted Israel did not meet the requirements set out by the administration for increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza, Biden decided Israel had done enough to satisfy his demands. More likely, he did not want to enrage the incoming president by withdrawing support for...
(JNS) — Israel’s detractors believe that America’s unwavering support for Israel is driven by the mythologically omnipotent “Jewish lobby.” The truth is it is the Arab lobby, entrenched within the deep state, which has been adversely affecting U.S. policy since the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. The Arabists fought first to prevent the establishment of Israel, then to strangle the nascent state at birth, and ever since, have sought to drive a wedge between the two countries despite their shared values and interests. This trad...
For single-issue voters for whom Israel is the most paramount, the choice in November hinges on which candidate is truly best for the Jewish state. Voters leaning toward Donald Trump tout him as the most pro-Israel president in history. Without trying to compare his policies to, say, Harry Truman, who made the Partition Plan happen, or Lyndon Johnson, who established the U.S. as Israel’s principal arms supplier and guarantor of its qualitative edge, or Ronald Reagan, who institutionalized U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, let’s examine Tru...
(JNS) — For decades, Jewish Republicans have talked about a realignment whereby Jews will abandon their traditional, almost reflexive support for the Democratic Party and embrace the Republican Party. Historically, Jewish voters have leaned heavily Democratic due to the party’s association with liberal values, which resonate with most Jews who identify as liberal or progressive. Policy Jews say that Israel is not the most critical issue, but they are influenced if one candidate is perceived as hostile—as was the case, for example, with Jimmy...
(JNS) — Turning out for a barbecue is nice; showing up for Israel is essential. The University of Maryland Hillel rightly took pride in hosting a back-to-school barbecue that attracted 1,500 Jewish students. However, the event was partly overshadowed by the university administration’s unconscionable decision to allow Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace to hold an affair on Oct. 7. After facing significant backlash and unfavorable publicity—the only thing besides money that moves administrators—UMD reversed its approva...
(JNS) - When we discuss Israel's history, we often speak in terms of geography: the partition plan, the 1948 border, the pre-1967 armistice lines, the post-1967 borders and the post-1973 boundaries. Now, we must add the pre- and post-2023 borders. The major difference is that instead of expanding the size of the Jewish state, it has shrunk since Oct. 7 because of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's failure to protect northern Israel. For roughly a decade, he avoided direct confrontation...
(JNS) — The demonization of Israel and antisemitism on campus may be more intense than in the past, but it’s not new. This is why it is even more damning that the Jewish community was ineffective in acting before the smoke turned into a blaze. As early as 1983, I wrote about the propaganda war on campus in the Jewish newspaper in Berkeley, Calif. “We should not let ourselves be intimidated by individuals or crowds,” I wrote. One problem was that “there are very few students on this campus with the knowledge, articulateness and inclinati...
(JNS) — With polls indicating that U.S. President Joe Biden’s re-election chances are getting slimmer, his campaign advisers have been pushing him to the left and seeking to mollify progressives by more bellicosely criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and punishing Israel by suspending arms deliveries. The more voluble demonizers of the Jewish state are drowning out the pro-Israel majority within his base. If he doesn’t listen to them, perhaps he will heed the advice of veteran Democratic pollster Mark Penn, who expla...
(JNS) — The words you are looking for are, “Thank you, Mr. President.” I have not hesitated to criticize many of U.S. President Joe Biden’s policies before and after Oct. 7, but I have also consistently maintained that he has been the most pro-Israel president ever during any of Israel’s wars. That should have been obvious this past weekend when the United States coordinated a regional air defense that helped Israel avoid suffering any serious harm from a barrage of more than 300 Iranian drones and missiles. It was the first time U.S. forc...
By Mitchell Bard (JNS) - The Biden administration is trying to pressure Israel to accept its idyllic vision of the Middle East by threatening to recognize a Palestinian state. The Israeli government should answer in the immortal words of actor Clint Eastwood in the "Dirty Harry" films: "Go ahead. Make my day." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should explain what will happen the day after the United States makes its announcement. Israel will recognize "Palestine" and inform the...
President Biden should be thanked for his executive order to sanction four settlers because, in doing so, he essentially undercut its premise, that there are “particular high levels of extremist settler violence.” He has recognized that only .001 percent of the 517,406 Jews living in the West Bank are engaged in such violence. This gives a better indication than media reports of the true extent of the problem. More names may be added, but it will still represent an infinitesimal fraction of the people his administration has demonized. More imp...
(JNS) — One of the characteristics of Arabists is that they are incapable of admitting or learning from mistakes. Secretary of Arabism (U.S. Secretary of State) Antony Blinken, continues to be the poster adult for their obliviousness. In the latest example, he channels his equally clueless predecessor, former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. For those with short memories, like journalists covering the Middle East, here’s what Kerry said in 2016: I’ve talked to the leaders of the Arab community, there will be no advanced and separate peace...
(JNS) — Following Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon, veteran journalist Marvin Kalb, senior fellow at Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, detailed how Hezbollah manipulated the press. A similar report can be written when the war with Hamas is over. In the following excerpts, substitute Hamas for Hezbollah. Israel is automatically at a disadvantage in any conflict because it is an open society. “During the war,” Kalb noted, “no Hezbollah secrets were disclosed, but in Israel, secrets were leaked, rumors spre...
(JNS) — Let’s state a few things at the outset. Many Palestinians oppose Hamas and violence. Every possible effort should be made to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. No one residing in Gaza would be in danger if Hamas had not launched rockets into Israel and committed a massacre of Jews not seen since the Holocaust. What else do we know about the people of Gaza? The people elected Hamas in the last election held in the Palestinian Authority, and surveys consistently have shown that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is more popular than P.A. hea...
(JNS) — It’s become a cliché to say that Jews are our own worst enemies. Nowhere is that truer than in academia, where Jewish professors, often from the field of Jewish and Middle East studies, have become some of Israel’s most vitriolic critics. Several decided to write an anti-Israel screed and solicit signatures from colleagues and, later, anyone happy to sign their name. The text was originally written by Lior Sternfeld, professor of history and Jewish studies at Penn State (and associate editor of Palestine/Israel Review, whose editor...
(JNS) - It's popular to refer to contemporary issues as Orwellian, and one must wonder whether George Orwell would see echoes of his dystopian vision of 1984 in 2023. I'm not sure how many people are aware that Orwell also wrote about antisemitism in Britain, and that his observations on the subject also resonate today. Writing in 1945, Orwell said he was speaking based on his own experience. He reported that antisemitism was increasing and had been "greatly exacerbated" by the war. He did not...
(JNS) — The BDS movement has been a total failure. It has not damaged Israel’s economy, it has not turned Israel into a pariah, it has not changed Israeli policy, and it has not destroyed the Jewish state. The BDS movement has tried to create the image of winning by claiming phony victories. It has also capitalized by convincing a handful of mostly B- and C-list celebrities to shun Israel. The fight to achieve these symbolic “victories” is the subject of Lana Melman’s well-researched book, “Artists Under Fire: The BDS War Against Celebrities...
(JNS) — Apparently recognizing my intelligence, Google has named its artificial intelligence service after me. Given the current interest in antisemitism generated by the new strategy of the Biden administration which I have found wanting, it seems appropriate to see what Bard would suggest. Here is what (A)I recommend for dealing with the campus: • Increase awareness and education about antisemitism. Many students are unaware of the history and nature of antisemitism, or they may not understand how it can manifest itself in different ways. By...
