Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2001 - 2025 of 3636
The Zionist Organization of America has called upon the TV broadcasting network MSNBC to fire Joy Reid, host of ‘MSNBC’s AM Joy’ program, for uttering outrageous anti-Semitic comments and for espousing bizarre conspiracy theories. The ZOA is appalled that someone espousing her views and making the comments she has made on air has a paid slot on a major TV network and calls upon MSNBC to fire her forthwith. Joy Reid’s record includes the following: • Writing a post in December 2005 on her now-defunct blog supporting a statement by the Iranian p... Full story
(JNS)—Where there is smoke, the saying goes, there is fire. But if you’re Palestinians committing mass arson against Israelis, there might not be media coverage. Many major US news outlets, despite the staggering damage to Israel’s economy and property, have ignored what should be a front-page story. For more than two months, Palestinians have been sending hundreds of helium balloons and kites filled with flammable material over the Gaza border and into Israel. This method of terrorism via mass arson has gained steam in recent weeks, with the I... Full story
By Mel Pearlman I became a subscriber to Time Magazine in my sophomore year in high school, when my English teacher compelled each student in his class to subscribe to either Time Magazine, Newsweek, or U.S. News and World Report. Each week we were to select an article for discussion and be prepared to discuss its language architecture in class. He used these publications as examples of excellent journalistic writing and as resources to build our English skills as to grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary. I have been a continuous... Full story
(JNS)—Amid all the challenges Israel is facing—the Iran nuclear threat; the presence of Iranian-backed forces and Hezbollah troops along Israel’s northern border; rioters and arsonists along the Gaza border; and Palestinians in the West Bank constantly inciting against Israel and paying terrorists millions of dollars each to kill Jews in a sophisticated “pay-to-slay” stipend scheme—the last thing Israel needs is to pour fuel on the fire of an international community that questions Jews’ rights to live in the only region of the world named J... Full story
(JNS)—Eight years ago during the Obama administration, the State Department adopted a definition of anti-Semitism to be used in identifying Jew-hatred around the world. Except for in the United States. To remedy that omission, a bipartisan group of politicians in Washington just introduced the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2018. This should not be a controversial piece of legislation. All that the act does is direct that anti-Semitism, as it is manifested today, be treated comparably to racism or sexism. It certainly doesn’t seek to ban hat... Full story
(JNS)—Gaza, a place with so much meaning. Words cannot describe the situations my comrades and I have been through. The first time we got to the border we couldn’t imagine what the next four months would be like. The first thing my officer told us when we started duty is that “the fence is a metaphor... only where the IDF is, is there a border.” We couldn’t imagine how right he was. In the past four months, my unit took control over the border, it was at this time the most difficult border in Israel. Israel Independence Day, “Yom Nakba,” prison... Full story
(JNS)—There was a time when defending religious freedom was at the top of the Jewish agenda. Jews understood that as a religious minority, our rights could only be defended when those of other religious faiths are also respected. Though anti-Semitism is on the rise elsewhere, American Jews don’t worry anymore about their government seeking to restrict their rights to practice their religion. Nor should they. Arguments about reasonable accommodation for Jewish religious observances are no longer a matter of much dispute. The widespread acc... Full story
(JNS)—The cancellation of an event as well-publicized in the media as the World Cup soccer warm-up match between Argentina and Israel requires an immediate PR counterattack from Israel and the Jewish world. What unfortunately succeeded in frightening superstar Lionel Messi and the other members of the Argentine soccer team is a mix of lies and death threats against the players. This is what the BDS movement is in its entirety: an arsenal of intimidation and lies disguised as justice, and supported mostly by Europeans. The game between A... Full story
(JNS)—When it comes to the Palestinian “original sin” theory of Israel’s creation, there are two key milestones: the flight of approximately 750,000 Arab refugees during the 1948 War of Independence and the 1967 conquest of eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the Six-Day War. The events of 1948 are known in Arabic as the nakba (“catastrophe”) and the events of 1967 are called the naksa (“setback”). This week, with the 51st anniversary of the Six-Day War upon us, Palestinians will mark “Naksa Day” on June 5 with protest... Full story
With the recent passage of the Taylor Force Act, Congress called on the Palestinian Authority “to stop payments for acts of terrorism (...) and to repeal the laws authorizing such payments.” In response, the Palestinian Authority reaffirmed its “national right” to financially support terrorists and has even increased its budget to do so. This is a blatant disregard of U.S. policy, and it’s time for the Treasury Department to target the administrators of the “Pay to Slay” practice for sanctions. United States Executive Order 13224 gives the Tre... Full story
(JNS)—To the editor: Do you want to know why most American Jews don’t believe what you publish about Israel? An article in The Washington Post this week explains it all. It had to do with a Palestinian Arab rock-thrower murdering an Israeli man. The facts of what happened are beyond dispute. On May 24, Israeli soldiers entered al-Amari, a neighborhood near the Palestinian Authority capital city of Ramallah, in pursuit of terrorists. Residents took to their rooftops and began hurling objects at the soldiers. A chunk of concrete thrown by a Pal... Full story
I return to the continuing one-man battle that I have been trying to wage in recent years. As a tour guide, I have visited Yad Vashem many hundreds of times, both the former and the current version. Many structural and technical innovations have upgraded the visiting experience. However, one very glaring content change has caught my eye now for a while and it leaves me no rest. I am asking for yet another attempt to draw the attention to the whitewashing of our history. I will not be silenced by the forces of political correctness, especially i... Full story
I have never been able to understand why Jews are so wedded to the Democratic Party. First, FDR and his anti-Semitic Congress refused to allow the S.S. St. Louis to land at Key West, thereby relegating hundreds of Hungarian Jews to the concentration camps. Now we see that not one Democrat attended the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem—not Chuck Schumer, not Bernie Sanders, not Dianne Feinstein. Furthermore, it would appear that the progressive liberals, who seem to have taken over the party, care less and less about Israel. I can o... Full story
Every day Israel is subjected to a torrent of warnings from Democrats. “You will pay a price for your support of President Donald Trump,” we are told. “He won’t be president forever, and when he’s gone, watch out!” The basic notion, repeated over and over again is clear enough. If Israel doesn’t want to be punished by the next Democratic White House, which we are warned will make us long for Barack Obama, we’d better stop talking about the fact that Trump is the best ally and friend Israel has ever had in the White House. These warnings are no... Full story
By Mel Pearlman 2018 The diplomatic world is aglow with optimism regarding the apparent and sudden turnabout of Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, as he appears to have overnight transformed from nuclear bully to a peace-loving flower. His rapprochement with South Korea and renunciation of his nuclear program has won him a summit meeting with President Trump in Singapore on June 12, 2018. Since the two heads of state share similar egotistical personalities and erratic mindsets it comes as no surprise that there would be bumps and surprises... Full story
When International Farhud Day was proclaimed at a conference convened at the United Nations headquarters on June 1, 2015, its proponents wanted to achieve more than merely establish a commemoration of the ghastly 1941 Arab-Nazi pogrom in Baghdad that killed and injured hundreds of Iraqi Jews. Farhud means violent dispossession. The Farhud was but the first bloody step along the tormented path to the ultimate expulsion of some 850,000 Jews from across the Arab world. That systematic expulsion ended centuries of Jewish existence and stature in... Full story
(JNS)—Can the Palestinians finally not miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity? That paraphrase of Abba Eban’s famous quote provides the key question to ask about the Middle East peace plan the United States is expected to unveil during the coming weeks. It’s also a point of disagreement between me, and my friend and esteemed colleague Daniel Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum. Pipes disagrees with my May 22 column, in which I argue that the putative peace plan that will be presented in the name of U.S. President Donald Trump... Full story
Dear Editor: This defense of the indefensible is very disappointing. In response I have decided to return the Sherut L’Am award presented to me by the HUS. I have been a member of the Jewish Communal Service since 1972; a product of two Schools of Jewish Communal Service (HUC-JIR and Hornstein/Brandeis) led by Jerry Bubis z’l and Bernie Reisman z’l. One of the proudest days of my professional career was when the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion awarded me the Sherut L’Am Award, nominated by Jerry Bubis z’l and presented b... Full story
(JNS) What do you do about a relative who loves you but won’t listen to your concerns? That’s the likely American Jewish reaction to news about a new poll of Israeli opinion that signals both good and bad news to those who care about the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. The good news is that overwhelming majorities of Israeli Jews believe that they are part of one Jewish people, rather than only possessing an Israeli (as opposed to fully Jewish) identity. They think that American Jewish support “is essential” for their securit... Full story
It’s painfully shocking that Anti-Defamation League head Jonathan Greenblatt recently wrote on ADL’s website: “it is a horrific tragedy that so many people have been killed and wounded at the Gaza border.” (“ADL Statement on Violence at Israel-Gaza Border,” May 15, 2018.) This broad statement was not limited to the tiny minority who were not members of a terrorist group. (And even that small minority joined the violent riots whose goal was to breach Israel’s border fence to descend upon nearby Jewish communities, schools, and day care centers... Full story
(JNS)—In a welcome statement issued this week, the U.S. State Department drew attention to the continuing persecution of the small Baha’i religious minority in Yemen by Iran-backed Shi’a rebels. The rebel Houthis “have targeted the Baha’i community in inflammatory speech along with a wave of detentions, ‘court summons,’ and punishment without a fair or transparent legal process,” the statement observed. These and similar actions over the past 12 months “appear to be an effort to pressure Yemeni Baha’is to recant their faith.” Like the Yezidi an... Full story
By David Ellenson and Joshua Holo (JTA)—At the 2018 commencement of the Skirball Campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, graduation speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon spoke out strongly, even provocatively, against Israeli policies in *Judea and Samaria. In the same address, Chabon also articulated deeply Jewish and Zionist commitments (not merely abstract or literary in nature, but specifically religious, communal and even tribal). Not surprisingly, responses have mirrored the r... Full story
(JTA)—I never did anything like that with liver, but when I read “Portnoy’s Complaint,” I knew it was about me. Not the actual me, because I would never do any of the things that Alexander Portnoy confesses in the 274-page rant about lust, parental guilt, lust, neurosis, non-Jewish women and lust by Philip Roth, who died Tuesday at 85. The misogyny threaded throughout the book and its constant, universal treatment of women as either sex objects or domineering authorities, or both aimed to shock in 1969 and is reprehensible. But the deeper... Full story
(JNS)—The Gaza border conflict is being fought on two battlefields simultaneously. One is the battle at the border fence, where the aggressors use Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, rocks, sling shots, burning tires and flaming kites. The other is the battle for the hearts and minds of the American public, where the aggressors use distortions, omissions, fabrications and innuendo. In the battle for public opinion, Israel faces two formidable opponents: the far-left wing of the Democratic Party and a large number of major news-media outlets. The t... Full story
May 8, 2018, the day that Donald Trump announced that he’s pulling America out of the nuclear deal with Iran, will mark the inauguration of a new American-Israeli-Arab alliance in the Middle East and a major realignment of US strategic interests. The administration had extended waivers on Iran’s nuclear sanctions on multiple occasions to allow for the US—together with our partners—to fix the fatal flaws of the JCPOA. Unfortunately, European leaders failed to commit to sufficiently meaningful amendments, especially on the most important element:... Full story
