Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2501 - 2525 of 3706
My dad is coming from the U.S. to visit us in Israel this week. As always, we will devote one morning to praying at the Western Wall (Kotel). As always, he will stop by the hugest worn-off stone—his regular spot—pull out a brown wallet and take out a pack of Post-it notes covered in Russian scribbles. As always, he will read the prayers and requests on those yellow squares and then will stuff them into a crevice between the stones. And then, he’ll cry for a few minutes before walking away. For generations, whenever a Jew announced his plans... Full story
You can make a strong case that President Barack Obama’ s decision to allow United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 to pass was very harmful to Israel. By endorsing the anti-Israel narrative that every square inch of territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war—including the Jewish Quarter in East Jerusalem and the Western Wall—is “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” and that Jewish presence in those areas is a “flagrant violation of international law,” Obama didn’t just throw renegade West Bank settlers to the wolves—he threw all of Isra... Full story
Like many others, I sat at my computer with baited breath Wednesday waiting for Secretary of State John Kerry to explain the background to the U.S. abstention on the United Nations Security Council vote. And explain he did. But there were so many things wrong with what I will call Kerry’s farewell anti-Israel speech: • Spending 45 minutes on settlements, and 45 seconds on terrorism. • Claiming the Palestinians “live under Israeli military occupation” when 98 percent of them live under the Palestinian Authority (PA). • Condemning Israeli con... Full story
I’ll indicate in advance that this is a personal and rambling note, promoted by several responses to what I wrote about the recent decision of the UN Security Council. And it is by no means the first time I’ve been provoked by what I’ve received from my Internet friends. Several responses have detailed a century’s worth of agreements, resolutions, et al, with different correspondents producing greatly different conclusions as to what it all means for international law and the obligations or opportunities of Israel. This interchange has led me t... Full story
Considering the perspectives of the Israeli and Palestinian populations, and seeing the reality on the ground, a two-state solution seems like the best option for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The Media’s Perspective Let’s begin by briefly summarizing, in broad brush-strokes, the commonly-available information from the media on Arab and Israeli attitudes towards the existing situation. Palestinian Arabs • A small minority agree on a two-state solution in order to have a peaceful life and prosperity, but they seek a solution that... Full story
Following my articles taking to task President Obama and John Kerry and their stabbing Israel in the back I received many replies. The vast majority were supportive and expressed embarrassment by the Obama-Kerry tag teaming. Some apologized and made sure I knew their vindictive behavior did not reflect that of the American people. One email led to a thoughtful discussion I would like to excerpt here. A friend wrote: “I read your article with much interest. However, (I’m) a bit puzzled. While I believe (in) and support the Zionist dream..., I a... Full story
As the sanctity of the Sabbath, the day of rest, set over Israel, two stabbings hit close to home and were jarring personally and nationally. The first took place in our neighborhood Friday evening. Despite the lack of use of electronics as is customary on Shabbat in traditional Judaism, word spread throughout town like a game of “telephone.” No one person got all the details correct, but the gist was clear: early Friday evening, a couple was out for a walk on the brisk clear night. Our 11-year-old sons are close friends. Out of the sha... Full story
The United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements comes in the wake of two other U.N. resolutions, passed by the UNESCO cultural body in October, that denied the historic and biblical relationship between the Jews and the land of Israel. The U.N. can pass resolutions, but it can neither change history nor alter reality. America’s abstention and refusal to use its veto power on an anti-Israel measure at the U.N. was a betrayal of historic proportions. For the Jewish alt-left such as the New Israel Fund and J Street, which is supported... Full story
In a recent article, Caroline Glick, a staff writer for the Jerusalem Post, takes aim at what she sees developing in the American Jewish community. Her targets include Jews supporting Obama, Clinton, and others of the Democratic Party establishment, their embarrassment at the election of Donald Trump, and their angst about Trump’s nomination of David Friedman as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel. Things have gone further, with an intemperate speech by John Kerry and a shrill response by Benyamin Netanyahu. If we’re cousins, we’re in the midst... Full story
WASHINGTON, D.C.,—At year-end, efforts are being made to disrupt the transition process of President-elect Donald Trump by crowds of disgruntled protestors. In response, Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens published the following opinion article today: The political left suffers from ‘sore loser syndrome’ in the wake of the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. It’s not uncommon for depression to set in when the candidate of your choice loses an election, but the pathetic parade... Full story
In 1989, following her tenure as President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick described how the Palestinians have used the UN to destroy Israel. Following outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama’s assault on Israel at the UN Security Council last Friday, longtime UN observer Claudia Rossett wrote an important article at PJMedia where she recalled Kirkpatrick’s words. In “How the PLO was legitimized,” published in Commentary, Kirkpatrick said that Yassir Arafat and the PLO worked “to come to power through international diplomac... Full story
In July 2006, Israel fought a bitter defensive war against the Lebanese Islamist organization Hezbollah. The hostilities, which saw thousands of rockets fired at Israel by Hezbollah terrorists, as well as the displacement of nearly 500,000 Israelis from their homes, ended one month later with a United Nations-brokered cease-fire. Hezbollah had been temporarily chastened, but the disarmament demanded by the U.N. Security Council never happened, and the threat it poses has only grown during the intervening decade, most recently demonstrated by... Full story
I recently saw worlds being created. My students, 50 Catholic participants in the four-year degree program of the Salesian Pontifical University housed at the Ratisbonne monastery in Jerusalem, together with four priests and I, traveled north to spend a day studying with students at a yeshiva located on Kibbutz Ma’ale Gilboa. The monastery was built in 1874 to house the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, an order founded by two Jewish converts to Catholicism, Alphonse and Theodore Ratisbonne. The Brothers and Sisters of Sion were dedicated f... Full story
It’s not all Arab terror, clashing demands of ultra-Orthodox and Reform Jews, concerns about what Obama might do in the coming month, Trump in the Oval Office, or barbaric Russians, Syrians, and other Muslims just over the northern border. There’s also been an explosion of concern about women’s legs, and cartoons of the prime minister, at least one of which has raised concerns about another political murder and brought the police to investigate a first-year art student and her teachers. There is also what may be a more serious wave of accus... Full story
While as Jews we celebrate our own New Year with a religious flourish for 10 days, usually in the fall, tell me you won’t do at least a little family and friends this weekend. What a year, right? It looks mightily like we will, in this country of ours have four political parties by the end of 2017. The Democrats are split between the “Regulars” and the “Progressives”; the Republicans between the “Regulars” and the “Tea Party.” Not to worry—we are one of the last developed nations on earth to have only two “major” parties. Will things wo... Full story
In late November, radical protesters in London attacked a Jewish communal building. As they wrestled with police at the gates, they screamed abuse about “baby killers!” and cried out, “It’s a Holocaust!” According to local media outlets, among them the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News, the protesters also daubed the building with graffiti that included a Star of David, a smear about a “kosher Holocaust,” and references to the Nazi persecution of the Jews. What was the reason for the protesters’ anger, the cause of their unashamedly ant... Full story
President-elect Donald Trump said during his campaign he wants to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. His nominee for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has said he hopes he will work from an embassy in the city. Trump’s transition team has affirmed the intention to move the embassy, albeit without a timeline. And now, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, in a forceful speech at Tuesday night’s Chanukah party at the embassy here, encouraged Trump to make good on the pledge, saying it was long past due. Dermer last night enume... Full story
On one of my first assignments abroad as a rookie journalist back in the early 1990s, I found myself in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, just as the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia was getting underway in earnest. One afternoon, sitting with a group of journalists and writers in a café in the city center, I was drawn into a long conversation with an Israeli professor who was temporarily teaching in Belgrade. We began comparing nationalism in the Balkans with nationalism in the Middle East, and an observation he made has stuck with me ever... Full story
As the BDS movement grows on college campuses, and as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activities increase in high schools and in our communities, the American Jewish community is losing ground, losing time, and losing connection to Israel of our Jewish youth. Getting Jewish teens, ages 16 and 17, to Israel en masse, including and following up with Israel advocacy training before they go to college, will equip them to fight anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and particularly the BDS movement. Key to attracting Jewish teens en masse to go to Israel is to... Full story
The concept is vague and messy in a number of ways. Where does the Wild East begin? On the eastern border of what was Israel prior to the 1967 war? With or without the expansion of Jerusalem legislated by Israel but not recognized by other countries? Another vagueness is how many Israelis have moved beyond those lines in the first and second of those conceptions. Estimates range up to 800,000, with about half in the parts of Jerusalem defined as especially unkosher by the friendly part of the international community, Officially, those... Full story
Haim Saban is wrong when he says Minnesota’s U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison is unqualified to head the Democratic National Committee. Ellison’s anti-Israel and anti-Semitic lineages do not disqualify him from the position. They more than qualify him. It is Ellison, not Saban—the Israeli-American mega-donor to both the Democratic Party and pro-Israel causes—who represents the Democrats’ true colors. The party has been abandoning support for the Jewish state for well over a decade. Recent studies by Brookings, Gallup, and Pew reveal a growing gap of su... Full story
John Kerry and J Street are worried. They see their cherished dream of a Palestinian state slipping away. Kerry’s criticism of Israel at the Saban Forum Dec. 4 attracted a lot of attention. But the transcript of the U.S. secretary of state’s remarks reveals an important moment that the media overlooked. Just as he was about to denounce Israel’s policies, Kerry suddenly turned to the audience and said: “By the way, just let me ask a question. Raise your hands. I mean, I know some of you may not want to acknowledge, but how many of you believe... Full story
When students at Toronto’s Ryerson University Hillel proposed to their Student Union that the university participate in the broader Canadian Holocaust Awareness Week, they did not anticipate the jeers, snickers, and eventual walkout to prevent a quorum from approving the motion. Nor did they anticipate that this hateful behavior would be led by members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Hillel students assumed SJP would respond as Hillel and most groups would respond were any minority group to propose an event promoting awareness of a... Full story
Can you feel the center collapsing all around you? Looking to the left and to the right—politically and religiously, here and in Israel—I see the gap widening at an increasingly rapid rate. The search for The Golden Mean, the desirable balance between extremes in our lives and worldview advocated by the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, the 12th-century philosopher), seems unattainable. The demographic decline at the center of the American Jewish community has been well documented. National and local studies have shown that we are moving in two o... Full story
Donald Trump is sending mixed messages, some of them more troubling than others. Americans might wonder why others are paying attention. The answer is simple. The U.S. aspires to influence the world, or at least large parts of it. And large parts of the world aspire to be helped, protected, left alone, or be led by the U.S. example. Soothing words heard from Trump reflect his winding down from the shrill rhetoric of the campaign. He won’t bother with criminal charges against Hillary Clinton, and thereby he removes one potential political and m... Full story
