Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 687 - 711 of 1222
(JNS) — Israel’s Minister of Justice Yariv Levin met on Wednesday with several prominent public figures who drafted a judicial reform compromise proposal to bridge the gaps between the sides. Levin met with Israeli jurist Yuval Elbashan, high-tech businessman Giora Yaron and former National Security Adviser Giora Eiland, who drafted the proposal. Daniel Friedmann, the former justice minister who was also involved in drafting the compromise, did not attend the meeting. On Tuesday, Levin had responded favorably to the outline, with sources fro...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticized as “unworthy” International Atomic Agency Director Raphael Grossi’s statement a day earlier that any attack Iran’s nuclear program would be illegal. “Against which law?” said Netanyahu at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting. “Is Iran, which openly calls for our destruction, permitted to defend the destructive weapons that would slaughter us? Are we permitted to defend ourselves? It is clear that we are, and it is clear that we will do so.” Rafael Grossi, he said, was “a worthy gentlema...
At 9:34pm Thursday, I got a strange message from my daughter in our family WhatsApp group. “For all those who asked, I am ok and alive.” Since nobody asked, her sarcasm coupled with a little fear were evident. I had been recording a podcast and didn’t know what she was talking about. None of us did. It seems that there was another terrorist attack, this time in central Tel Aviv. I hadn’t heard. Three people were injured, one shot in the neck and as of this writing in critical condition. One terrorist was killed on the spot but there are rep...
(JTA) – Less than a hour after a terror attack in eastern Jerusalem on Friday killed three people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a succinct message: Destroy the Palestinian attacker's home. "Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided to take immediate action to seal and demolish the home of the terrorist," said the statement from Netanyahu's office. Home demolition orders have almost become a matter of course following Palestinian attacks. They don't usually make headlines, n...
(JNS) — Three draft laws related to the government’s judicial reform program passed their first reading in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday. The first, coined “Deri Law 2.0,” passed by a vote of 62-53. It would prevent the Supreme Court from interfering in ministerial appointments. Its purpose is to allow Aryeh Deri, chairman of the Shas Party, to return to the government as a cabinet member after the Supreme Court said on Jan. 18 that he could not serve as a minister, as his appointment was “unreasonable in the extreme.” The court cited Deri...
(JNS) - A 4.4 magnitude earthquake centered off the coast of Lebanon in the Eastern Mediterranean was felt in Israel early Wednesday morning. There were no reports of injuries or damages in the Jewish state. The quake struck 73 kilometers northwest of Sidon, Lebanon at a depth of 10.0 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. On Monday, several people were killed and more than 200 injured in Turkey by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake centered in the country's Hatay province that was also...
TEL AVIV (JTA) — “Everyone who answers, ‘Thank God’ when asked, ‘How are you,’ raise your hand,” Brit Yakobi asked the crowd of 700 people gathered in an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem. The overwhelming majority of hands shot up. “Everyone who is mortified with our current government, raise your hand,” continued Yakobi, the director of religious freedom and gender at Shatil, an Israeli social justice organization founded by the New Israel Fund. Once again, almost every hand went up. The display took place at a Jan. 25 conference billing itself...
(JNS) - The Abraham Accords have made a major impact on international relations in the Middle East. They are also proving an ace for Israeli tennis. Last month, young players and coaches from the Israel Tennis & Education Centers flew to Bahrain-the nonprofit's second trip to the island kingdom, with which Israel normalized relations in Sept. 2020. The Abraham Accords impacted the centers both domestically and abroad. First, ITEC decided after the accords debuted that its vision ought to...
(JTA) — The Israeli minister responsible for relations with Jews in the Diaspora has a message for the government of the country where most of them live: “Mind your own business.” Amichai Chikli made the comment Sunday in a radio interview in Israel, where he was asked to address recent comments by U.S. ambassador Tom Nides, who said he was urging Israeli leaders to “pump the brakes” on their controversial effort to change the country’s judiciary. Nides was echoing sentiments expressed by U.S. President Joe Biden about the judicial reform prop...
(JNS) — American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said he is working with his Israeli friends to prevent the government in Jerusalem from changing the Law of Return. Under the current law, an individual with a single Jewish grandparent is eligible for automatic Israeli citizenship. “We want the Israeli government and our friends to understand that we will act to prevent anything from happening to cause rifts within Diaspora Jewry,” Deutch said. “We don’t want anything to happen that could stop people from seeing Israel as their place of refuge...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday appealed to politicians and the general public to tone down the rhetoric amid threats that the government’s judicial reform proposal will ignite a “civil war.” “The values of the [1948] Declaration of Independence are the compass of our country—I will not let anyone harm them. This is a sensitive and explosive time in the public sphere. I am aware of the voices from both sides, of all the pain, worries and anxieties. I do not ignore this and it is on my mind constantly,” Herzog wrote in a le...
If it feels like there’s an overload of news out of Israel — a sea of flags at a Jerusalem protest, police sirens outside of a synagogue — that’s because there is. Israel has been consumed by two escalating crises that both appear to be crescendoing at the same time. And even though they feel separate, they’re intertwined in at least one big way. Allow us to explain: Israel is simultaneously contending with two things: a wave of Palestinian terror attacks and Israeli military raids in the West Bank, and massive protests of a government plan to...
(JNS) - The Knesset approved on Wednesday in first reading a bill to abolish the Disengagement Law by a vote of 62-36. The Disengagement Law led to the destruction and evacuation of four Jewish communities in northern Samaria-Sa-Nur, Homesh, Ganim and Kadim-and 21 in the Gaza Strip. The law would restore freedom of movement to Israelis in the four Samaria communities. Knesset member Yuli Edelstein and National Missions Minister Orit Strook sponsored the measure at the request of Samaria...
(JTA) — One of the Israeli teams dispatched to Turkey to assist after the devastating earthquakes there has headed home after being informed about a “concrete and immediate threat” against them. United Hatzalah told its team of roughly two dozen personnel in Turkey to end their rescue mission and leave the country, the emergency services organization announced early Sunday. Because of a shortage of available planes to evacuate them, the philanthropist Miriam Adelson donated her private jet to facilitate the evacuation, the group said. “We k...
(JNS) — Oztma Yehudit lawmaker Zvika Fogel on Tuesday accused opposition leader Yair Lapid and three others of “treason” for what he views as fomenting a civil war. In an interview with the Kan public broadcaster, Fogel defined Lapid, National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and former Deputy Economy Minister Yair Golan as the “most dangerous” people in Israel. “These four are talking about war. If they were calling to protest I’d give them every right to protest. But they’re talking in terms of me being...
(JNS )- Marc and Sharon Rosenbluth explored neighborhoods all over the country, but when they made aliyah, they chose to live in Karnei Shomron, a well-appointed village about 20 minutes away from Rosh HaAyin and Kfar Saba, beyond the Green Line. "I was coming from a suburban life outside of Baltimore and I wanted my children to have a yard to play in, a basketball hoop-a similar existence," said Sharon. "Even though we used to laugh at flocks of goats on the side of the road when visiting my...
(JNS) - The Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee has called for an emergency meeting to review the country's earthquake preparedness in light of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi to "update and reiterate the steps we need to take." Comptroller's Warning State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman on Monday urged the government not to delay. The deadly earthquakes in...
(JNS) - Israel's Cabinet voted on Sunday to establish a new community along the border with the Gaza Strip. The future town, to be named Hanun, will be located in the Sdot Negev Region and eventually be inhabited by some 500 families. "The establishment of the community is further evidence of the resilience of the [citizens living in the] 'Gaza envelope' and the power of the State of Israel. We're proud to build up the Land of Israel and we're proud to strengthen settlement in all parts of our l...
(JNS) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intervened to delay the demolition of an illegally constructed building in eastern Jerusalem due to American pressure, Channel 11 reported. Netanyahu was also reportedly warned by security forces that amid the current tensions, the building’s destruction could set off a round of violence in the largely Arab part of the capital. The large building houses 100 persons and is located in the Wadi Qaddum section of Silwan/Shiloah, an Arab neighborhood in the city’s southeast. The illegal structure has been...
(JNS) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led a tree-planting ceremony on Monday to mark Tu Bishvat in the Neve Ya'akov neighborhood of Jerusalem, where a Palestinian terrorist killed seven people last month. Netanyahu was joined by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion and family members of the murder victims, as well as police officers, medics and paramedics who treated the wounded at the scene of the Jan. 27 attack. The following day, another Palestinian terrorist shot and seriously wounded an Israeli...
(JNS) — A recent surge in legal immigration has led to a decrease in Israel’s Jewish majority, according to an analysis of data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Channel 14 reported on Sunday. The Israeli Immigration Policy Center, an NGO established in 2012 to promote immigration policy which serves Israel’s strategic interests, found that last year’s 23-year record in the number of new immigrants had resulted in a 0.3 percent decline in Israel’s Jewish majority, to 73.6 percent from 73.9 percent at the end of 2021. This...
HAIFA - On a recent chilly morning, six Israeli Druze women gathered in a room at the University of Haifa library to discuss the joys and frustrations of living in a modern, Jewish, largely secular country. Chatting in Arabic and Hebrew, many of the women, all students at the university, spoke about the challenges of balancing their traditional Druze identity with their modern Israeli aspirations. "I spend two hours each way to come to school. But my education is so important, I'd do it even if...
(JNS) — Israel on Sunday revoked the VIP pass of Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, in line with a Cabinet decision last week to sanction Ramallah in response to the U.N.’s passage, at the P.A.’s behest, of a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to weigh in on the legal status of Judea and Samaria. Border officials stopped al-Malki as he crossed from Jordan into the P.A., and confiscated the travel document allowing him to expedite or altogether bypass normal security checks in Judea and Samaria. “In the dip...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday that “profound” disagreement over the government’s judicial reform plan was tearing the country apart, and vowed to work towards averting a constitutional crisis. “We are in the grips of a profound disagreement that is tearing our nation apart. This conflict worries me deeply, as it worries many across Israel and the Diaspora. The foundations of Israeli democracy, including the justice system, are sacred and we must strictly safeguard them, even at a time of fundamental arguments and debat...
(JNS) — Punitive measures imposed by Israel on the Palestinian Authority will “promptly lead to its collapse,” P.A. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday. Israel’s Security Cabinet last week approved the measures in response to what it described as the P.A.’s ongoing “political and legal war” against the Jewish state. They came a week after the U.N. General Assembly, at the urging of the P.A., passed a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupati...
