Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1984 - 2008 of 2213
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Israeli sage who founded the Sephardic Orthodox Shas political party and exercised major influence on Jewish law, has died. Yosef died Monday at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. He was 93. He served as Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi from 1973 to 1983, and extended his influence over the ensuing decades as the spiritual leader of Shas, which politically galvanized hundreds of thousands of Sephardic Israelis, though Yosef himself never served in Knes... Full story
Report: Dayan asked Golda Meir to prepare nuclear option in ’73 (JTA)—Moshe Dayan urged Golda Meir to prepare to launch a nuclear strike during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, according to a former Israeli official’s longtime aide and confidant. Arnon Azaryahu, who was an aide to Israel Galili, a Cabinet minister during the war, said in an interview that Dayan, the defense minister at the time, suggested that Meir, then the prime minister, order to begin preparations to enable a nuclear option on Oct. 8, 1973—the second day of the war. The Yom Kippur... Full story
(JNS.org) In a speech at the conference of the self-labeled “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby J Street, Vice President Joe Biden said last Monday that the Palestinians are the “least ideological and sectarian” Arabs in the Middle East. Biden’s comments on the Palestinians were an attempt to address questions concerning the Obama administration’s brokering of Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations during a time of upheaval elsewhere in the region, including in Syria and in Egypt. “In light o... Full story
Salome Worch was born in Iran, grew up and spent most of her adult life there. The daughter of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father, she was registered as a Muslim in Iran’s records. Gradually, she grew more interested in her Jewish heritage, and in 2005 eventually immigrated to Israel, where she works in catering. “Don’t use my maiden name because my brother is still in Iran and I wouldn’t want to put him in any danger,” she warned The Media Line. Worch said she is deeply skeptical that the election of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani h... Full story
JNS.org—In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama named Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and advancing Arab-Israeli peace as two of his top foreign policy issues. “In the near term, America’s diplomatic efforts will focus on two particular issues: Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the Arab-Israeli conflict,” Obama said. Obama said these two issues “have been a major source of instability for far too long, and resolving them can help... Full story
I have devoted numerous columns of late to the tsunami of anti-Semitism sweeping throughout Western Europe, noting that aside from the frenziedly anti-Semitic Islamic extremists, the principal perpetrators are left wing activists frequently led by those purportedly promoting human rights. Manfred Gerstenfeld’s most recent book “Demonizing Israel and the Jews” documents evidence of the depressingly high levels of European anti-Semitism, highlighting the frequent employment of Holocaust inver... Full story
JERICHO, West Bank (JTA)—The Intercontinental Hotel Jericho’s towering brick palazzo, flanked by a row of palm trees leading to an ornate archway entrance, seems the very epitome of desert luxury. But inside, the hotel lobby—replete with marble floors and plush armchairs—stands empty on a recent weekday morning, save for a lone tourist rushing through wrapped in a towel. General manager Hisham Nammari said the hotel’s 181 rooms are sometimes full during the summer and that business is generally... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The good news for Israel in President Obama’s speech at the United Nations was his insistence that any steps Iran might take to solve the standoff over its nuclear program must be transparent and verifiable. The bad news was that Obama wasn’t clear about what those steps should be. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a one-minute video posted online Tuesday after the Obama speech to the General Assembly, welcomed the parameters outlined by the president and made clear... Full story
Israel Hayom exclusive to JNS.org—Twenty-eight members of Israeli Knesset, among them seven deputy ministers, last Tuesday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the planned release of terrorists to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations process. Habayit Hayehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked spearheaded the request, writing a letter that was signed by MKs from Habayit Hayehudi, deputy ministers and MKs from Likud, and MKs from United Torah Judaism and Shas. “It doesn’t make... Full story
Iran approves memorandum for joint probe of AMIA bombing BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA)—Iran approved the memorandum signed nine months ago with Argentina to jointly probe the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday at U.N. headquarters in New York that the bilateral agreement was approved by “competent authorities” in his country, according to the Buenos Aires Herald newspaper. Zarif and his Argentinian counterpart, Hector Timerman, jointly announced the approval by th... Full story
The “red line” associated with Iran’s nuclear program or Syria’s use of chemical weapons has sparked an ongoing international debate, in which both Israeli and Diaspora Jews have made their voices heard. But a debate that hits closer to home for American Jews is about where Jewish federations in their communities draw the line on funding programs associated with varying opinions about Israel. Boston In the Boston area, a recent test case for the local Jewish federation—Combined Jewish Philanthr... Full story
(JNS.org) Arab Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi (Ra’am Ta’al) said in a televised interview with Arab media that Jews will not be allowed to “contaminate” the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a place of prayer for Muslims alone. Period! Not for others,” said Tibi, a member of the Ra’am Ta’al party, Israel National News reported. “We repeat: the occupation of Al-Aqsa by the Crusaders was long, but it ended; the same was true of the British Mandate, and the same will be true... Full story
BAKU, Azerbaijan (JTA)—With less than a month to go until presidential elections, the moustachioed smile of Ilham Aliyev stares down at his countrymen from giant posters scattered around this bustling metropolis on the Caspian Sea. The Azerbaijani president has been in office since 2003 and is widely expected to be re-elected, extending the leadership of the Aliyev clan into its third decade. Aliyev’s father, Heydar, held the post for a decade prior to his son’s ascension. Ilham Aliye... Full story
NEW YORK—A new Pew Research Survey has shown that a large majority —62 percent—of Palestinians justify the use of suicide terrorism. In the words of the Pew Survey, “in some countries, substantial minorities of Muslims say attacks on civilians are at least sometimes justified to defend Islam from its enemies; in the Palestinian territories, a majority of Muslims hold this view.” Among Palestinians, 37 percent said suicide bombing was often justified and 25 percent said it was sometimes justified. Only 16 percent of Palestinians said that suic... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—El Al Airlines said it will cancel its day flights to Eilat beginning at the end of the week over safety concerns. The airline in a statement said its flights from Ben Gurion International Airport will be halted as of Thursday and that a new flight path required by the Civil Aviation Authority does not meet international aviation safety standards. Two Israeli domestic airlines, Israir and Arkia, have switched to the new flight path and will still fly to Eilat. The El Al announcement comes a week after the airline reinstated f... Full story
By Abigail Klein Leichman ISRAEL21c A new Israeli study comparing the handwriting of healthy people to those with Parkinson’s disease (PD) holds out the promise of providing a simple diagnostic tool at the earliest stages of the progressive disorder caused by the death of nerve cells in the brain’s muscle-movement control areas. As many as 10 million people worldwide suffer the tremors, impaired balance and rigidity associated with PD, which has no cure. The handwriting study is the latest in many Israeli investigations into causes, dia... Full story
Report: Israeli agents backing Kenyan troops in bid to end Nairobi mall siege JERUSALEM (JTA)—Kenyan troops reportedly backed by Israeli agents launched an assault to end the siege by Somali militants at a Nairobi shopping mall. A Kenyan security source confirmed that Israelis “are rescuing the hostages and the injured” at the upscale Westgate mall, the French news agency AFP reported. The Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to confirm or deny its agents were involved in the operation, which took place shortly after nightfall on Sunday. Kenya... Full story
On the same day that the U.S. and Russia agreed to a deal stipulating that Syria must remove or destroy its chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014, Israelis were happy to spend Saturday’s 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War in synagogue, and not on the battlefield or in safe rooms with gas masks. Yet Israelis’ long-term outlook on the situation in Syria isn’t as rosy. “Israelis are relieved in the short-term but concerned in the long-term,” Mitchell Barak, an Israeli political pollster... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—When Georgette Bennett decided a few months ago to help refugees from Syria’s civil war, she wanted to do it in a Jewish way. Citing a passage from Leviticus she said her late husband often quoted, “Thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor,” Bennett met with the CEO of a major Jewish aid group and quickly got him to agree to head a Jewish effort for the refugees. Bennett, a former professor, journalist and philanthropist, supplied the first $100,000. The CEO, Al... Full story
Israeli Member of Knesset Nachman Shai (Labor), who studied and worked in the U.S. for years, says he had no idea how much the 25-year-old prayer rights group Women of the Wall mattered to North American Jews—until he went there on a recent outreach trip. “We were shocked to see how important women praying at the Kotel was,” Shai says in an interview with JNS.org. “For average Israelis it’s not such a big issue.” “Wherever we went [in North America] we heard about the Kotel as if it was the ce... Full story
During his term as Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren found himself faced with a rapidly changing America, a Middle East on fire, and an Israel that had to deftly navigate between the seismic changes taking place in both locations. But looking at the polls, which continuously show high support for Israel among Americans, Oren is satisfied, saying they show that support for Israel in American public opinion is “the highest it’s ever been.” “At a time when the Middle East is turbule... Full story
Twenty years after the signing of the fateful Oslo Accords between Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, Knesset Members are heavily debating the merits of the peace process and the two-state solution paradigm. Parliamentarians from both Israel’s left and the right agree that the process has not yielded the results anyone would have hoped for, including the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians, and agree that th... Full story
Report: Israel stopped producing nukes in 2004 (JTA)—Israel stopped producing nuclear warheads nine years ago when it reached a stockpile of 80, according to a new report. According to the September-October issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was released over the weekend, some 125,000 nuclear warheads have been built since 1945—approximately 97 percent by the United States, the Soviet Union and Russia. The report by Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris calculated that Israel began making nuclear warheads in 1967 and pro... Full story
Like the biblical Jacob, U.S. President Barack Obama sees a ladder in his dreams. But instead of God at the top, the American president sees his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The Russian president, with his proposal that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad transfer his chemical weapons stockpile to international hands, will ultimately save Obama from ordering an attack. It’s not clear what is preferable to Obama—Putin’s solution or a “no” vote from Congress. Either way, Obama—regardless of wh... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Jewish groups backing President Obama’s call to strike Syria militarily are citing moral outrage and U.S. national security as primary considerations, but concern for Israel—however muted—also looms large in their thinking. A lingering sensitivity over misrepresentations of the role of the pro-Israel community in the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003 kept Jewish groups from weighing in on Syria until it was clear that President Obama was determined to strike. Now that same sensitivity is leading them to downplay any mention of Is... Full story
