Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — WASHINGTON – April 25, 2019, marked an extraordinary moment in American Jewish history: It was the first time a presidential candidate framed his decision to run around fighting antisemitism. The candidate was Joe Biden. At first, Biden hadn’t seemed eager to run for president in 2020. But that changed when Neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, shouting slogans that Biden’s father taught him represented the worst of human nature. Worse, Trump could not bring himself to unequivocally condemn the marchers and the...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s federal death sentence remains intact, after President Joe Biden commuted 37 of the 40 sentences of prisoners on federal death row. All of the three men still sentenced to death committed crimes that were motivated by hate or terrorism. Biden’s announcement early Monday morning is among a number of measures he is taking to protect his policies and vision ahead of Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Biden froze the use of the death penalty while in office and Trump has said he plans to...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — There are 34 Jews in the incoming Congress, with a 35th likely to join in April. Should that candidate, Florida State Sen. Randy Fine, win his special election in Florida, that would mean no change in numbers overall between the outgoing Congress and the incoming one: The House Jewish delegation will drop from 26 to 25, but the number of Jewish senators will increase from nine to a minyan. Dig a little deeper, though, and there are some changes — both in terms of new challenges and new opportunities for the Jewish class...
A synagogue in suburban Melbourne, Australia, was set ablaze on Friday, causing congregants to flee and injuring at least one person. The fire before dawn on Friday at Adass Israel, a haredi Orthodox synagogue in the town of Ripponlea, sent congregants gathered for morning prayers into the streets at 4:10 a.m. Those who fled the fire reported assailants breaking windows and throwing firebombs into the building. The damage from the fire appeared to be extensive and was brought under control by 5 a.m. by a team of 60 firefighters and 17 trucks,...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, is ready to relinquish his title as Senate majority leader, but the most senior Jewish elected official in U.S. history will get to remain the leader of what will be a minority caucus in the next Congress. Senate Democrats reelected Schumer as their leader on Tuesday, a validation after a tough election for the party, which lost control of the White House and the Senate and failed to regain the U.S. House of Representatives. Schumer was unopposed and the vote was unanimous. As of...
(JTA) — Israel’s security cabinet approved a U.S.-brokered ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah, which ends more than a year of conflict with the terror group on Israel’s border with Lebanon. President Biden said in an address to the nation after the agreement that Lebanon’s government agreed to the agreement, and that the withdrawal of forces starting then would take up to 60 days. The ceasefire took effect early Wednesday morning in the region. “I’m pleased to announce that their governments have accepted the United States proposal to end the...
(JTA) - Pam Bondi, who President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to be his attorney general, said last year that campus protesters who express support for Hamas should face FBI questioning. Trump named Bondi, who served as Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019, on Nov. 21. The nomination came after his first pick, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew following meetings with Republican senators, who apparently made clear that allegations of sexual predation and drug use, which he has...
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant based on allegations that they starved Palestinian civilians in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas. The court on Thursday also issued an arrest warrant against Mohammed Deif, the Hamas military chief whose death has been reported but is not confirmed. The Hague-based court’s pre-trial chamber decided to issue the warrants based on a recommendation in May by its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. The cou...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is filling out his national security team with pro-Israel hawks who favor maximum pressure on Iran to stand down from its belligerence in the region. Reports Monday said Trump planned to name two Floridian allies to top jobs: Sen. Marco Rubio will be tapped to be secretary of state, and Rep. Michael Waltz will be his national security adviser. Both men have said Israel should not be prevented from staging a direct attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. That stance echoes Trump who, before the...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — As midnight arrived on the East Coast, it appeared increasingly likely that Donald Trump would retake the presidency — a victory that would reshape the United States and that could change its relationship with Israel while ushering in an administration whose domestic priorities do not match those of most American Jews. That victory was confirmed early Wednesday morning when news agencies called Wisconsin for Trump, confirming that he had passed the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win. The tally made clear that Trump...
(JTA) - WASHINGTON - Israel said it hit military targets in Iran in retaliation for that country's missile barrage on Oct. 1, apparently heeding Biden administration pleas to avoid oil fields or Iran's nuclear program because of fears of escalation into an all-out war. "In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the State of Israel – right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran," Daniel Hagari, the Israeli army s...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — With just four days to go before the election, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have both tried to use Israel as a wedge issue: Trump has said the country will not exist in two years if he is defeated, and Harris’ campaign has called his rhetoric on Israel antisemitic. Trump and Harris do disagree on a range of Israel-related topics, from how Israel should fight its battles to their starkly different visions of America’s role in the world. But there are also key issues where — in the big picture — they agree. Both Harris and...
(JTA) — Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the deadliest attack on Israel in its history, was killed in a shootout with Israeli forces, Israeli officials reportedly have said. Kan, Israel’s government-run radio network, quoted senior official sources as saying that DNA testing confirmed that the Hamas chief was one of three terrorists killed in a shootout Thursday, Oct. 17, with Israeli forces in Rafah, the city on the Gaza-Egypt border. Israeli officials would not confirm the report to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The army had earlier said that...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — A poll commissioned by a Jewish affiliate of the Democratic Party shows Vice President Kamala Harris garnering 71 percent of the Jewish vote in the seven swing states likely to decide the election. The poll released Wednesday by the Jewish Democratic Council of America and conducted from Sept. 26-Oct. 2 showed Donald Trump getting 26 percent of the vote just four weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election. The states include Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada. The polling by...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — The last time President Joe Biden helped Israel repel an Iranian missile onslaught, he advised Benjamin Netanyahu against retaliation, telling the prime minister to “take the win.” Now, after another barrage of missiles from Iran, things have changed: He’s giving Israel a green light — albeit with qualifications — to strike back. Last week, the United States assisted Israel in repelling nearly 200 ballistic missiles Iran launched at the country, similar to what had occurred in April. The attack came after Israel killed...
(JTA) — Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz both expressed unstinting support for Israel during a vice-presidential debate that took place just after Israel came under Iranian assault. But the two men tussled over whether Donald Trump, the former president who is the Republican presidential nominee, would be as reliable a steward of the U.S.-Israel relationship as President Joe Biden has been. On Tuesday, Biden sent in reinforcements to help counter the Iranian onslaught and warned of “severe consequences” for Iran. In their first...
(JTA) — Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, President Joe Biden warned against “full-scale war” in Israel and Lebanon, sounding a warning as massive exchanges of fire escalated between Israel and Hezbollah. In his final speech as president to the international body, Biden squarely blamed Hezbollah for the hostilities on Israel’s northern border, which began when the Lebanese terror group started shelling Israel on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas launched its own war against Israel from the Gaza Strip. Since then, hundreds of people...
(JTA) — Michigan’s Jewish attorney general has accused the state’s Palestinian-American congresswoman of antisemitism, in a war of words between two prominent Democrats that could upend an already tense battleground state. The exchange between Attorney General Dana Nessel and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, formerly friends, stems from Nessel’s decision to file charges this month against 11 pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan. In a Sept. 12 statement, Nessel emphasized the right to free speech but accused the 11 protesters at the uni...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — Should the U.S. government address antisemitism on its own, or as part of the broader fight against prejudice? That’s the question that occupied — and divided — Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday at an emotional hearing that, at one point, was brought to a stop by someone shouting antisemitic invective. Tensions were evident almost immediately when the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic chairman, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, and its top Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, clashed over the he...
(JTA) - WASHINGTON - For decades, President Joe Biden has called himself a "Zionist." But in the waning days of his reelection campaign, he wondered aloud if anyone knew what the term means anymore. Speedy Morman, a podcaster, had asked Biden in a July 12 whether he was a Zionist. Biden answered that yes, he was. "Now, you'll be able to make a lot out of that because people don't know what a Zionist is," Biden said. Nine days later, Biden dropped out of the presidential race - and he may have...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — Less than two months before he hopes to be reelected president, and shortly before the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Donald Trump will address the Israeli American Council’s national convention. The IAC conference, which Trump also addressed as president in 2019, is one of the relatively few Jewish venues in the United States where he can expect to get a friendly reception. The group is led by Elan Carr, who served as the envoy to combat antisemitism during Trump’s presidency. Its lead do...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — American Jews plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris by a wide margin, according to a new survey by a Jewish Democratic group. The survey also found that 87 percent of American Jewish voters support the Biden administration’s efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that would release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The survey, released Monday by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, shows 68 percent of Jewish voters planning to vote for Harris, the Democratic nominee, and 25 percent plann...
By (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for not freeing hostages as Israel woke up to the shattering news that Hamas terrorists murdered six captives who were on the verge of being rescued. Some of those killed had been slated for release under a failed deal in July, an anonymous Israeli official told the Israeli news outlet Ynet. Netanyahu’s apology, delivered Sunday to the parents of one of the six, Alex Lubnov, was a first for the prime minister who until now has said that accountability should come after Hamas is...
(JTA) — CHICAGO — The Democratic National Convention is denying a speaking spot to a group of pro-Palestinian delegates, a decision it confirmed after the parents of an Israeli-American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, delivered an address that brought the convention to a standstill. The delegation of activists belongs to “Uncommitted,” the movement that calls for an end to the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They protested the decision by staging a sit-in outside the convention center that lasted into...
(JTA) — CHICAGO — Doug Emhoff talked about Passover brisket and riding the bus to Hebrew school. And Chuck Schumer wore a blue-square pin below the American flag on his lapel, symbolizing the struggle against antisemitism. The second night of the Democratic National Convention was intensely Jewish: Along with Emhoff and Schumer directly discussing their Jewish identities, two other prominent Jewish elected officials — Bernie Sanders and J.B. Pritzker — took the stage, while the night opened with an invocation by Rabbi Sharon Brous. Jewish herit...
