Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Pig heads sent to synagogue, Israeli embassy and museum in Rome (JTA)—Boxes containing the head of a pig were sent to the main synagogue in Rome, the Israeli embassy there and a museum showing an exhibition on the Holocaust. The packages, sent via a courier service, were delivered last Friday, just days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day. All three packages were turned over to Italy’s special terrorism and major crime police, who opened an investigation. The packages contained no message and had no information about the sender. At...
Americans with Israeli bank accounts may be in for a financial nightmare in just several months if they haven't filed their taxes properly. According to Charles M. Ruchelman, a member of the Washington, D.C., law firm of Caplin & Drysdale, some Israeli banks are already notifying U.S. account holders that they may be disclosing the relationship between the Israeli banks and their U.S. owners to the U.S. Department of Justice, which could result in fines-or even prosecution-for Israeli account...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—More than half the United States Senate has signed on to a bill that would intensify sanctions against Iran. But in a sign of the so-far successful effort by the White House to keep the bill from reaching a veto-busting 67 supporters, only 16 Democrats are on board. The number of senators cosponsoring the bill, introduced by Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), reached 58 this week, up from just 33 before the Christmas holiday break. Notably only one of the 25 who signed up in recent days—Sen. Michael Ben...
Although Ariel Sharon will be remembered primarily for his achievements on the battlefield and his decisions as an Israeli political leader, an often-overlooked aspect of his legacy was his impact on the American Jewish community. In March 1980, Sharon arrived in the United States in the midst of an uproar over the Carter administration's support of a United Nations resolution branding Jerusalem "occupied Arab territory." Sharon, as a member of Prime Minister Menachem Begin's cabinet, was invite...
New visa allows ‘X Factor’ winner to work in Israel as singer JERUSALEM (JTA)—Rose Fostanes, the Filipina caregiver who won Israel’s “X Factor,” will be allowed to work in Israel as a performer. On Monday, Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar ordered the Population and Immigration Authority to issue Fostanes an artists’ visa, which will allow her to be employed as a singer. The visa also requires Fostanes to stop working as a caregiver for her employer of the past five years. Saar interceded when it was revealed that Fostanes’ work visa was v...
A top Iranian lawmaker and cleric said that the country's uranium enrichment program could allow it to build a nuclear weapon "in two weeks" in order to "put down Israel," according to multiple reports in the Farsi language press. Iranian lawmaker and cleric Muhammad Nabavian said on Friday that Iran would be able to build a nuclear bomb in "two weeks" if it gets "access to 270 kilograms of 20 percent [enriched uranium], 10 tons of 5 percent, and 20 thousand centrifuges," according to reports...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Two top Obama administration officials urged Jewish groups not to back new Iran sanctions, calling them “dangerous.” The officials—from the White House national security team and the Treasury Department—spoke Wednesday with Jewish leaders in a call convened by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. JTA spoke with multiple participants on the call. The officials outlined the terms of the interim six-month sanctions-for-nuclear rollback relief set to begin next week, saying it allows Iran no more tha...
(JTA)-Ariel Sharon, one of Israel's last warrior statesmen, whose military and political careers were woven into his nation's triumphs and failures, has died. Sharon, 85, died Saturday at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv after eight years in a coma. "He went when he decided to go," said his younger son, Gilad, who has become the fierce guardian of his father's legacy. He was among the last of Israel's founding fathers, fighting in every Israeli military conflict in the first three decades...
NEW YORK—The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned actress Emma Thompson and three dozen other British actors, for seeking the boycotting of Israel’s celebrated Habima Theater troupe, which is to perform later this year in a six-week theatrical festival taking place at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Thompson and her colleagues cite spurious human rights concerns but hypocritically fail to call for a boycott of the National Theater of China, which is participating in the same festival. The ZOA has condemned Thompson and u...
The measures, announced by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh during a press conference in Gaza City, are seen as a direct result of the deep crisis facing Hamas in the aftermath of the ouster of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. The Egyptian authorities have since tightened their blockade of the Gaza Strip, sealing the Rafah border crossing and destroying most of the smuggling tunnels along their shared border. The Egyptian authorities have also accused Hamas of involvement in terror attacks against Egyptians—a charge that has been s...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Until recently, the rule of thumb in the pro-Israel community was that the bigger the academic group, the less likely it was to consider a boycott of Israeli colleagues. But with the 30,000-member Modern Language Association set to host a panel on BDS at its convention this week in Chicago, the rule may have to be reconsidered. Supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement have scored some victories in recent months, mostly among smaller groups. The American Studies Association, which endorsed a boycott r...
Jewish groups remember Sharon as a warrior and peacemaker (JTA)—Jewish organizations in the United States and around the world remembered the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a military leader and a fighter for peace. “His legacy is a more secure State of Israel, safe on its borders and resolved to put an end to the campaign of Palestinian terrorism once and for all,” Barry Curtiss-Lusher and Abraham Foxman, the national chair and the national director, respectively, of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. “It is not only...
A recently revealed Israeli State Comptroller's report that remains under a government gag order has ignited concern over the Muslim Waqf's attempts to erase Jewish ties on the Temple Mount-Judaism's holiest site-and Israeli authorities' neglect of those activities. The classified document, whose contents were published by the New York-based newspaper The Jewish Voice, details ongoing illegal excavations being carried out on the Temple Mount by the Muslim Waqf (trust) and places blame on those...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Growing up in the Urals, Pavel Polev was a precocious ice skater and a member of the Soviet Union's national youth figure-skating team. But in 1992, at age 15, Polev's life was upended when he joined the massive wave of Jews immigrating to Israel from the crumbling Soviet Union. After serving a mandatory three years in the Israel Defense Forces following high school, Polev took a job as a custodian. Two decades later, Polev is a successful small-business owner and rising...
Upsurges in Palestinian terrorism have often accompanied progress-and eventual breakdowns-in Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations over the past 20 years. The latest round of talks, brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, is proving to be no different. Palestinian attacks on Jewish military and civilian targets have been on the rise since a Lebanese sniper killed an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier in mid-December. A civilian hired by the IDF was murdered Dec. 24 while repairing...
(JNS.org) The Taglit-Birthright Israel program broke its own record with 39 groups, totaling 1,600 Jewish young adults from across the globe, landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday. Israeli Tourism Minister Uzi Landau and Taglit-Birthright CEO Gidi Mark attended a ceremony for the trip participants, who came from Australia, Argentina, Russia, the United States, Germany, and Canada, Israel Hayom reported. The participants join the list of more than 350,000 young adults from 64...
(JNS.org) Israel’s population grew in 2013 by 1.8 percent, or 147,000 people, bringing the country’s total population to 8.1 million, according to data from the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Immigrant Absorption Ministry. Some 19,200 Jews moved to Israel from other countries. The most significant rise was in the number of immigrants from France, with 3,120 French Jews moving to Israel in 2013, a 63-percent jump from the previous year (1,916). The largest group of immigrants, 7,520, came from the former Soviet Union. Some 2,680 imm...
(JTA)—French Foreign Minister Manuel Valls instructed French mayors to ban performances by the anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala. Valls sent the non-binding recommendation days before Dieudonne is scheduled to launch a nationwide tour, the French news agency AFP reported. “I have sent an instruction today to all mayors,” Valls said at a news conference near Paris. “It recalls that mayors and municipalities may prohibit a show if it risks creating a disturbance to public order.” The text stipulates that the the mayors may ban shows t...
(Washington Free Beacon)—The Obama administration is pressuring Israeli generals to stop publicly voicing their concerns about the administration’s security proposals in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and instead endorse the administration’s plans, according to Israeli media reports. The administration is seeking a complete or partial IDF withdrawal from the Jordan Valley, where the border between Israel and Jordan lies at the eastern edge of Judea and Samaria, also called the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority has long sought contr...
PARIS (JTA)—The Israeli government is wading into the burgeoning European debate over circumcision and receiving a mixed reception from the continent’s Jews. On Dec. 11, Israel initiated a motion in defense of circumcision at the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental organization devoted to enhancing cooperation among its 47 member states. Intended to offset a nonbinding October resolution approved by the council’s Parliamentary Assembly that condemned non-medical circumcision of boys, the Israeli initiative will be reviewed in January and p...
Bus bomb in Israel called similar to Boston Marathon type JERUSALEM (JTA)—The bomb that exploded last month on an evacuated public bus in central Israel closely resembled the type used in the Boston Marathon attack. The explosive in Bat Yam was enclosed in a pressure cooker and was activated by a cell phone, according to the Shin Bet security service, the Times of Israel reported. Some 14 people have been arrested in the foiled Bat Yam attack, the Shin Bet announced after a gag order on the arrests was lifted on Jan. 2. Among them are four m...
Several weeks after Bedouin and global anti-Israel elements celebrated the apparent cancelation of a plan to resettle tens of thousands of Bedouin in Israel's southern Negev region, the fate of the plan remains unknown. In a dramatic press conference on Dec.12, former Israeli minister Benny Begin, placed in charge of the implementation of the "Prawer Plan," resigned his post and announced that the plan would be withdrawn. Just days later, however, Knesset members continued to meet to discuss...
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was surprised by a forthright expression of support for the Jewish state from Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting last month in Moscow, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Friday. Netanyahu had flown to meet the Russian leader in a last minute effort to prevent an interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers from being signed. During the meeting, Netanyahu asked Putin to withhold support for the convening of a Nuclear Non Proliferation Conference the stated purpose of which would be...
NEW YORK– Jewish National Fund (JNF) is denouncing the decision by the American Studies Association to boycott Israel’s academic and research institutions by encouraging people to take action. Items include a letter writing campaign to the president of the ASA and university deans and faculty members, tweets to the ASA (“End the @AmerStudiesAssn boycott of academic institutions in #Israel! #academicfreedom”), and spreading the Positively Israel message of Israel’s contributions to the world by bringing a Positively Israel event to campus, helpi...
(JNS.org) Following the proposal of a new Iran sanctions bill in Congress, Mehdi Moussavinejad, a senior member of the Iranian parliament's energy committee, threatened that Iran would increase its uranium enrichment to 60 percent. In November's interim nuclear deal, Iran agreed to dilute its 20-percent-enriched uranium stockpiles down to 5 percent. "Given the method that the other negotiating side-the U.S. in particular-has adopted during the nuclear negotiations, the legislators are working...
