Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2706 - 2730 of 3706
I returned to the UK for Passover having been out of the country for about six months. Living in Florida had shielded me from the anti-Semitic goings on in the mother country, that is, until I landed. It is not uncommon for the far right or far left in politics to heap scorn on the State of Israel or indeed for moderates to criticize its policies; the opposition party in the democratically elected country is very good at leading the charge. I have no issue with people expressing opinions with which I may not agree on the state of the... Full story
Every group of people has its betrayers. And if Jews needed a reminder of that adage, 11 Jewish law students and alumni at Harvard Law School just might have provided it. Indeed, the surprise was that it was only 11. These students and alumni became witting apologists for Husam El-Qoulaq, the Harvard law student and Palestinian activist who invoked the anti-Semitic stereotype of the smelly Jew, when he hurled a question at former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni as to why she was so “smelly.” Livni was a panelist at a law sch... Full story
As recently as the 1940s, anti-Semitism was so common in the United States that even the president privately told offensive jokes about Jewish immigrants in a faux New York Jewish accent. Yet in the past few months, a candidate who is the son of Jewish immigrants and has a pronounced New York Jewish accent has won 18 presidential primaries and caucuses, and more than 6 million votes. He has received donations from more than 4 million Americans—the largest number of individual contributors to any political campaign in U.S. history. Have A... Full story
Dear Editor: The other day I was having a conversation with some friends. During the discussion I was asked if I had ever heard of Sidney Blumenthal and his son Max. I responded, “No, should I have heard of them ?” It was suggested to me that I go on line and do a search for my own benefit. Later that day, I did. Well, what an eye opener that was! According to the information I found, the father, Sidney Blumenthal has been a close adviser to both former President Bill Clinton and also to former Secretary of State and presidential candidate, Hil... Full story
Israelis of a certain age have a saying that translates from Hebrew as, “We’ve already seen that movie.” It’s the approximate equivalent of, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” It came to mind after seeing the most recent full-page ad in the New York Times that was sponsored by advocates of a Palestinian state. At the top was photo of Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin, and Anwar Sadat, next to the headline, “Israel Made Peace With Egypt—and Got Peace.” That was followed by a photo of Bill Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin, and King H... Full story
It is difficult to determine what is most offensive: the Jewish candidate for president condemning Israel’s actions, exaggerating by five times the deaths in Gaza during the military operation in 2014 without anything like an appropriate weighing of chronic attacks on Israel from Gaza; his emissary to Jews describing Gazans’ deaths as “murder”; or UNESCO’s resolution condemning Israel’s violation of Muslim holy places, without any consideration of their central place in Jewish history. We shouldn’t forget the even greater offense to good sense... Full story
Bernie Sanders drew a reported 28,000 people to a rally in Brooklyn. That’s a lot of folks for a 74-year-old man to draw to a speech. But, it doesn’t seem to translate into wins in primaries. Bernie has struck a chord with unhappy Democrats (and Socialists) who feel the odds stacked against them in the present system of politics and big business. And, pretty much they are right. The five biggest financial institutions issue 75 percent of the credit cards in this country as well as most of the car loans and mortgages. So, what to do about it?... Full story
A lie conceals the truth. And ugly but hidden truths never have a chance of being acknowledged, addressed, and ultimately ameliorated. Because of this simple truism, one of the greatest lies of our age—that violence committed in the name of Islam has nothing to do with Islam—has made an intrinsically weak Islam the scourge of the modern world, with no signs of relief on the horizon. One of the latest manifestations of this lie took place in Pakistan. On Easter Sunday, March 27, a suicide bombing took place near the children rides of a pub... Full story
Silly me. When I heard reports throughout Israeli national media about three Palestinian Arab youth missing for nearly two weeks, I was concerned on two parallel levels. First I was concerned that because if Israeli media was reporting the missing youth, there must have been serious concern that something bad had happened to them: Something so bad that it was even relevant to Israelis and noteworthy in our media. It’s rare that Israeli kids go missing as in other western countries making the notion of Amber Alerts quite foreign. We have other c... Full story
ELKINS PARK, Pa. (JTA)—The Conservative movement’s leadership must drop its ban on Conservative rabbis officiating at interfaith weddings—before it’s too late. The Rabbinical Assembly’s unequivocal rule is that a Conservative rabbi may not officiate at an intermarriage. But after 42 years as an active rabbi, during which I abided by that prohibition, I now believe it is no longer in the best interests of Conservative Judaism or the Jewish community. Reality has overtaken us. Sixty percent of Jews who wed marry someone from another faith. Th... Full story
JTA invited supporters of the five leading Republican and Democratic contenders for their parties’ presidential nomination to submit opinion pieces in support of their candidate.... Full story
(JTA)—I am executive vice president and chief legal officer of The Trump Organization. I have been working with Donald Trump for over 19 years. I am an observant, committed Jew. What comes to my mind when I think of Donald Trump? Inspiration. He inspires people of all kinds to work hard and do their best. He inspires people to dream and fosters an environment where people can advance their dreams. He will not take no for an answer, and he crafts creative solutions to problems. Loyalty. Many of his employees have worked for him for 20 to 30 y... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—On April 19, in the New York Democratic primary, I voted for Bernie Sanders. I’ve got three good reasons for doing so. Sanders is incomparably better on fighting for social equality. He’s more pro-Israel than Clinton. And he’s more electable. Since the late 1960s, the distances among the rich, middle class and poor have grown wider. The power of the small economic elite has also surged. And the growing gap has concentrated alarming levels of political influence and social isolation in the hands of the very few. Senator Sanders... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Today, Israel is surrounded by more turmoil than ever, and the world also presents great challenges to the United States. Iran is developing missile technology that can reach Israel, and providing ever-more-sophisticated rockets to Hezbollah and Hamas. Russia is making aggressive military movement from Ukraine to Syria. China is claiming new territory and seeking to militarize the South China Sea. At such a perilous time for the Jewish state and for the U.S., supporters of Israel in the Democratic Party—both Jews and non... Full story
SILVER SPRING, Md. (JTA)—I want to tell you about the person I have worked with closely for the past two years. Sen. Ted Cruz is not just my boss, but has become my mentor and my friend. There is no greater friend of the Jewish people and of Israel. We started together in the summer of 2014, a very bitter and difficult summer, with a war raging between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Early that summer three innocent Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in the West Bank. Senator Cruz took to the Senate floor and spoke passionately about the boys in order... Full story
COLUMBUS, Ohio (JTA)—There are many opinions as to what criteria should be used in deciding who gets my fellow Republicans’ vote as their nominee for president of the United States. But I think the only valid question should be this one: Which candidate can actually beat Hillary Clinton in November? Do Republicans really want to be sitting here next year asking ourselves how we could have nominated someone who all the polls show was trailing the Democratic candidates by double digits? This is all the more painful for those of us who recognize t... Full story
Here’s the latest episode of outreach to Iran from the lips of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. After condemning, during a press conference in Bahrain, the “destabilizing actions” of Iran in the Middle East, he then followed up with a plea. “Help us end the war in Yemen,” Kerry implored the Tehran regime. “Help us end the war in Syria, not intensify, and help us to be able to change the dynamics of this region.” What do you call this? Naiveté? Hard-nosed realism? The actualization of President Barack Obama’s deeply held belief that Amer... Full story
A new Iranian-backed Palestinian terrorist group has emerged—and by appearances, it may be expanding. In less than two years, Harakat as-Sabeeren Nasran il-Filastin (The Movement for the Patient Ones for the Liberation of Palestine), also known as al-Sabireen, has committed several terrorist attacks against Israel, drawn worries from rival terror groups, and promoted its “brand” through an ambitious social media presence. Yet major U.S. print and online news outlets have failed to report the rise of this group, which calls for Israel’s destruc... Full story
Four issues in current headlines may be causing some Israelis to avoid the news, and embarrassment for our overseas friends, while they are sending other Israelis to various sides of virtual barricades. One is that young soldier who killed a Palestinian in Hebron. Another is the faltering deal to expand the plaza alongside the Western Wall so that non-Orthodox Jews can pray as they wish at Judaism’s iconic site. The third is the arousal of an issue associated with the newborn wards of Israeli hospitals, i.e., should Jewish and Arab women be p... Full story
(JTA)—The Israeli Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling on conversion is a truly historic decision—for Israeli and American Jewry. While the case only concerns a few individuals, the general rules and unequivocal language have wide significance for both Israeli and American Jewry. The ruling represents another blow to the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly on religious affairs; it strengthens a pluralistic approach to Judaism; and it upholds the principles of religious freedom and the rule of law. In the narrowest sense, the ruling affirme... Full story
It was ironic that the day The Atlantic monthly published what was supposed to be the definitive work on U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he was removing the bulk of his military forces from Syria. Jeffrey Goldberg’s long profile titled, “The Obama Doctrine,” sought to define the theoretical underpinning of Obama’s foreign policy. Goldberg devoted the bulk of his 20,000-word corpus to analyzing Obama’s policies in Syria, where, he offered, Obama finally broke free from foreign pol... Full story
Dear Editor: Last evening (Saturday, April 16) I attended a presentation by Israeli Druze families. Each had sons or brothers who died while serving in the IDF or Border Police. They shared their lives and their loses. It was an emotional and profound evening. It was a privilege to be among these devoted and brave citizens of Israel. I thank the sponsors of the event, the Orlando/Israeli nonprofit organization We’re With You, for making our lives richer and for their devotion and support to these families and to many more who have e... Full story
Over the years, I’ve spoken at or attended a number of academic conferences on the subject of rising anti-Semitism. Parleys like these are essential for boosting our understanding of why, seven decades after the end of the World War II, the taboo around anti-Semitic invective—whether directed at Jews as Jews, or through code words like “Zionists”—has been broken. Historians, sociologists, and political scientists, along with scholars from similar disciplines, all play a decisive role in determining how the trajectory of anti-Semitism changes e... Full story
No, the headline doesn’t refer to America’s president. I’m referring to the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas. But let’s keep President Barack Obama’s party, the Democrats, in mind as we examine the latest developments involving Abbas and his Fatah party. Established in 1964—long before there were any settlements or “occupied territories”—Fatah has long been the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and it carried out many of the PLO’s most notorious terrorist massacres. The 1972 Munich Oly... Full story
A recent visit with a young Japanese friend, a paratrooper in the IDF, provided an insight into the nature of Israel and other places. He said that fellow soldiers take him for Chinese or Korean, even though he explains that he comes from Japan. Israelis do a lot of traveling. It’s tough being cooped up in a small country with hostiles all around. We can reach Europe, depending on destination, with 30 minutes of flying (Cyprus), four hours (Italy or France), or five hours (Britain). There are more than four million departures annually by I... Full story
