Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — In his Knesset address on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke of his first partner in his great utopian vision—a time of peace for the entire world: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. In an outpouring of shared enthusiasm at the Knesset during the return of the hostages, Trump placed Netanyahu in the circle of history’s great figures. “Thank you very much, Bibi. Great job!” he declared. “Without him, none of this could have happened. Without his courage and patriotism,” Trump said. “He’s not the easiest person to...
(JNS) — As Israelis continue to debate the release of convicted terrorists as part of the current hostage exchange deal with Hamas, they aren’t the only ones thinking about prisoner releases. American victims of Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups and their families are watching, too. For us, the prospect of seeing the murderers of American citizens walk free is not an abstract policy issue. It is deeply personal. Thirty years ago, my daughter Alisa Flatow, a 20-year-old American college student, was murdered in a Palestinian terror att...
The past few days in Israel have been filled with heart wrenching euphoria mixed with cautious optimism, and foreboding. After two years in unspeakable conditions and captivity, Hamas has released all 20 living hostages who have returned home to begin a long process of physical and emotional recovery. Predictably, Hamas has also violated the terms of the agreement to release all the bodies of the 28 remaining hostages, as of this writing still 21 remain in the terrorists’ clutches. So far, one of the bodies that they have released has not b...
(JNS) — “Israel treats the Palestinians the way Nazi Germany treated the Jews.” Few slogans in modern propaganda are as powerful, emotional and poisonous as this one. In recent years, it has become a rallying cry at demonstrations and across social media. Gaza is depicted as the “Auschwitz” of the 21st century. Israeli airstrikes are labeled “genocide.” “Refugee camps” are likened to the Warsaw Ghetto. The nakba (the “disaster” or “catastrophe” of the State of Israel) is rebranded as the Arab shoah. Israel’s government is accused of pl...
(JNS) — At a time when America is still reeling from the murder of Charlie Kirk and anti-Jew and anti-Israel hatred is peaking, the Anti-Defamation League decided to put Kirk’s Turning Point USA in its crosshairs. Did the ADL think that would reduce Jew-hatred somehow? It seems likely it did just the opposite. As egregious and upsetting as that ADL action was, it was just another horrific misstep in the last decade of its misguided cultural crusades that have nothing to do with its core mission: protecting the Jewish people. The ADL was est...
What a week. President Donald Trump forced the prime minister of Israel to grovel before the Emir of Qatar—the same autocrat who bankrolls Hamas. Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Jewish state, was compelled to apologize for Israel’s attempted strike on Hamas officials being hosted in Doha and to promise never to do it again. It was a humiliating spectacle: the sovereign leader of a U.S. ally bowing before the financier of the Oct. 7 massacre, at the insistence of an American president. It wasn’t Netanyahu’s first humiliation at the hands o...
(JNS) — A close look at the boats used by anti-Israel extremists aboard the so-called “Gaza Flotilla,” which attempted to evade Israeli navy vessels and land in the Gaza Strip on Yom Kippur, reveals much about their true motivation—something that both journalists and Israel’s supporters have missed, though should not have. You might have expected that the banners on the ships would feature messages like “Stop the Blockade,” “Feed Gaza” or even “Stop the Genocide,” but the boats I saw in the photos had no such messages at all. That’s because the...
I am writing this column on the morning of Oct. 9, 2025, a few hours since the announcement that an agreement has been reached between Israel and Hamas for release within 72 hours of all the remaining hostages; the 20 that are still alive and the remains of the 28 who were murdered by their captors. Along with my co-religionists in the Diaspora and the citizens of Israel, I am elated and excited about our hostages coming home; and momentarily dreaming that peace in the Middle East may finally be at hand. But I know better than to allow my...
(JNS) — Oct. 7, 2023, was the worst day in the history of the State of Israel and will be remembered as such for all time. But as New York Times columnist Bret Stephens noted in a column analyzing the lessons of that day and the war that followed, “For all its undoubted horrors, this war may ultimately be remembered as liberating.” Israel responded to Hamas’s day of genocide by waging war to destroy the Iran axis of which Hamas was a member. Stephens explained how Israel’s war had liberated the peoples of the region. In Lebanon, thanks to...
Sharm el-Sheikh, October 9 (U.S. time): Israel and Hamas signed a first-phase agreement that promises a pause in fighting, a partial Israeli pullback, and hostage–prisoner exchanges, with releases expected shortly after Israeli cabinet ratification. Much to hope for. But peace isn’t just paperwork — it rests on trust and, not to be forgotten, on what children are taught. As President Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” There are three sobering clues from recent history which explain why verification can’t be a footnote, it’s the whole bal...
(JNS) — As a law student at American University Washington College of Law in the early 1970s, I worked part-time as the administrator of the campus’s Abraham S. Kay Spiritual Life Center, a building in the center of the Quad, donated by the Jewish Kaye family and designed to look like a giant eternal light unto the nations. The Kay building’s use reflected its design, as its ground floor served as offices for clergy members of up to a dozen religious organizations and as a social hall. The main floor provided a nondenominational prayer and cere...
Watching Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian address the United Nations General Assembly was not only nauseating but also infuriating for millions of Iranians. To hear a man with the blood of countless citizens on his hands lecture the world about human rights, equality, and the rights of Gaza’s children is nothing short of grotesque hypocrisy. If the UN were to replace its teleprompters with lie detectors when Iranian envoys speak, the results would shock the world. These representatives of the Islamic Republic do not come to promote peace o...
(JNS) — While it has shown remarkable resilience, the economy has been one area where Israel has clearly suffered significant losses in terms of lost income from the collapse of the tourism industry, the cost of property damage, the cost of war materiel and the cost of rehabilitation. It will take years to recoup the losses, and even then, it is uncertain whether the economy will be as strong as it was before Oct. 7. One indication of the shape of the economy is the downgrading by major ratings services. S&P and Fitch both reduced the c...
(JNS) — When Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany were threatening to take over Europe in the 1930s prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain chose appeasement. On Sept. 30, 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed by Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany, handing over the Sudetenland, a fortified region of Czechoslovakia, to Hitler. The agreement was signed without Czechoslovakia’s participation. Six months later, Germany invaded the rest of the country. The appeasement had failed catastrophically. App...
For over 75 years, the State of Israel has taken pride in protecting worldwide Jewry as well as its own citizens. The current surge in antisemitism, however, reveals a collapse in this dual promise and obligates Diaspora leaders to adopt a new assertiveness toward distracted decision-makers in Jerusalem. The Basic Law of the Jewish state establishes Diaspora well-being as a priority: “The State shall strive to secure the welfare of members of the Jewish People and of its citizens who are in straits and in captivity due to their Jewishness or d...
(JNS) — It seems that each week during the month of Elul, there has been a terrorist attack, all of them a national tragedy. In the quietest moments of heartbreak, when the world feels shattered into a million tiny pieces, I’ve discovered something unexpectedly beautiful: Our broken hearts are actually doorways. Doorways to connection. Doorways to healing. Doorways to something Divine. As we enter the sacred period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, these Ten Days of Awe that feel both eternal and fleeting, I find myself thinking about how...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s new 20-point Mideast peace plan, based in large part on his “Peace to Prosperity” plan issued during his first administration, lays out conditions that on the surface seem like common sense. Palestinians must stop incitement. They must stop raising their children to hate Jews. They must form a vetted police force to maintain order, accept international supervision, rebuild their society and create a moderate self-governing authority. These sound like reasonable benchmarks. But the problem is simple:...
(JNS) — At first glance, the surge of support by Democratic elected officials for recognizing Palestinian statehood seems an act of moral clarity: After decades of suffering, political displacement and human tragedy, isn’t it overdue for Palestinians to receive the diplomatic recognition so many world powers already afford them? Beneath the veneer of humanitarian concern and lofty rhetoric, however, lies a host of practical, ethical and strategic problems that Democratic politicians seem to gloss over—and that deserve a harder look from voters...
(JNS) — As the U.N. General Assembly meets, leaders from across the globe are lining up to announce recognition of a Palestinian state. French President Emmanuel Macron has led the charge, urging the Saudis and others to enshrine the two-state solution as the only path to peace. Governments from Canada to Australia to the United Kingdom have already followed suit, formally recognizing Palestine. It may feel historic to those in the room. Palestinian activists will post triumphant slogans. Supporters will believe their governments have b...
(JNS) — It is astonishing and sometimes discouraging to see how history echoes itself in the formative events of our time. Recent statements by various Western countries expressing their intention to recognize a Palestinian state coincide with an escalation in jihadist terrorism, mass demonstrations and the growing influence of anti-Israel lobbies in key European capitals and decision-making centers. This familiar dynamic, which we have seen recently in Spain, France and the United Kingdom, illustrates the way in which pro-Palestinian o...
As world leaders attended the UN General Assembly, several Western nations marked this annual gathering with an act of treachery of global proportion. France, the UK, Canada, and Australia led the pack of those who made a mockery of international diplomacy, doing something sad and even illegal in recognizing the “State of Palestine.” The mockery would be funny if it weren’t so obscene, propagating a fake reality as if such an entity ever existed, or has the standing and legitimacy to exist as a state. Canada and the UK have raced to lead the p...
(JNS) — Some may view a vote this week in the United Nations on a resolution to recognize a Palestinian state as a long-awaited step toward peace. In reality, it is profoundly misguided. It rewards terrorism, abandons American hostages, undermines Israel—our strongest ally in the Middle East—and emboldens adversaries who threaten U.S. national security interests. For U.S. policymakers, the stakes could not be higher. The Palestinian leadership has rejected every serious peace initiative that required compromise, going back to the Peel Commi...
(JNS) — If you are Jewish or a friend of the Jewish people, this is your wake-up call. We are living in a time when silence equals surrender. The lies and propaganda against Jews and against Israel grow louder every day. If we sit back, if we hesitate, if we think that others will carry the burden for us, then we fail not only ourselves but also the generations who came before us and those who will come after. This Rosh Hashanah is not just a holiday — it is a summons to action. Here is the reality: Jews make up less than 16 million out of a w...
In many ways, Israel has never been stronger, winning military victories over enemies and creating new friends through economic partnerships. Internally, while there are still societal divisions, the Israeli public is largely united around the mission of eradicating the threat of Hamas and other terrorists from inside and outside Israel’s borders. At the same time, Jewish communities around the world have been convinced by mainstream media that Israel and world Jewry are weak and are facing an existential threat from worldwide antisemitism. A...
(JNS) — Charlie Kirk was only 31 years old when he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet while speaking at Utah Valley University. A husband, father, voice for freedom and unapologetic defender of Western values, he was murdered in cold blood—his life stolen not because of anything he did wrong, but because of what he stood for. His killing was not just the silencing of a man. It was an attack on the principles that bind free nations together: faith, courage and the determination to speak the truth, even when it is unpopular. Utah Gov. Spenc...
