Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2751 - 2775 of 3644
NEW YORK (JTA)—If you want to understand why the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, or BDS, has gained so much ground in the past two years, look no further than intersectionality, the study of related systems of oppression. Intersectionality holds that various forms of oppression—racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and homophobia—constitute an intersecting system of oppression. In this worldview, a transcendent white, male, heterosexual power structure keeps down marginalized groups. Uniting oppressed groups, the theory goes, stren... Full story
A year ago today (Jan. 7, 2016), the world was stunned by the events unfolding in Paris. First, brothers Sherif and Said Kouachi—both masked, dressed in black, and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles—forced their way into the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine, killing 12, including staff members, security personnel, and a guest. The next day, a lone gunman armed with a pistol and a machine gun shot several people in a Paris suburb, killing a policewoman. And the following day, while the brothers were engaged in an 8-hour sta... Full story
Next month marks the first anniversary of the death of Alberto Nisman, the Argentine federal prosecutor who spent a decade investigating the 1994 Iranian-backed bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. In that massacre, 85 people were murdered and hundreds more injured. Nisman’s lifeless body, readers will remember, was discovered in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment on Jan. 18, 2015—the night before he was due to elaborate on his formal complaint against the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in fron... Full story
OK, so 2015 was a bummer. But we are a people with a tradition of looking to the future with hope—and having a sense of humor. So here’s my prediction for the major news stories of 2016: January: In the midst of a winter heat wave, Madison Square Garden cancels Ice Capades show due to melting ice; Republicans abruptly cancel outdoor “Global Warming Is A Myth” rally in Minnesota after key speakers suffer sunstroke. February: On the eve of Super Tuesday primaries, Donald Trump announces his vice presidential running mate: Nicole “Snooki... Full story
It was possible to hope that this wave of violence was winding down. Soon after Friday prayers at the mosques, there was not much more excitement than routine stone throwing at a light rail train as it passed by an Arab neighborhood. For some time now, the management of the rail line has coated the windows with material that prevents serious damage. Then began an event that has occupied Israel’s media more than anything earlier. It also revealed some of the complexities that suggest the conflict is endless, with ups and downs in outbreaks. A gu... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Yet again the Israeli Knesset is considering legislation to single out and punish progressive nongovernmental organizations, particularly the human rights groups that are such a thorn in the side of those who favor the continued occupation of the West Bank. Carefully constructed to evade the inevitable legal challenges it would face if passed, the legislation approved by a Knesset committee this week would require representatives of organizations receiving foreign government funding to identify themselves as such in every p... Full story
BALTIMORE (JTA)—No spoilers here, but you must have noticed by now that “Star Wars” is everywhere. With the recent release of “The Force Awakens,” everyone from die-hard to casual fans are analyzing all aspects of the movie, from the posters to the cameos. The big questions fans are asking: Will this “Star Wars” film live up to the originals in the franchise? Will it be faithful and convey the same meaning? Does the new generation at the helm have what it takes to tell the story in as compelling a way as the generation that preceded it? These a... Full story
State Department officials and Middle East “experts” are always warning us that if the Palestinian Authority collapses, Israel will be harmed because Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation will come to an end. But an incident in Ramallah this week makes one wonder if that “security cooperation” really exists at all. The Palestinian news agency “Ma’an” boasted on Dec. 22 that “Palestinian police ordered Israeli Border Police forces out of the Beituniya area of western Ramallah and threatened to use their weapons if they refused, local... Full story
The most recent Republican presidential debate was a breath of fresh air on the terrorism challenge that is front and center in American politics right now. To begin with, it was heartening to see Jeb Bush, whose quest to secure the nomination is all but over, remind Americans that he can be a clear and insightful thinker and leader. As he lambasted Donald Trump for the latter’s stupid and bigoted proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, Bush pointed out a few indubitable truths, most importantly concerning the Kurds. “We nee... Full story
December 22, 2015 I didn’t cry when I first saw the Western Wall, but I bawled like a baby when I first visited Ellis Island. I thought about this over the weekend as I watched Brooklyn, director John Crowley’s emotionally devastating adaptation of Colm Toibin’s 2009 novel about an Irish woman who comes to the United States as an immigrant in the early 1950s. I cried when she said goodbye to her mother and sister at the docks in Ireland. I cried when she passed through a door into her new world. Mostly, I cried over each of the kindnesses paid... Full story
Imagine Donald Trump as the leader of the free world. It may be something we have to get used to. Coming after eight years of Barack Obama, who came after George W. Bush, who came after Bill Clinton, one can wonder what made America great. A population of 320 million and the world largest economy had a great deal to do with it, along with being the last country standing at the end of the most recent world war, and still having the greatest military assets. However, 1945 was a long time ago. Those of us who remember it are too old to be relied... Full story
(JTA)—Ever wonder if Bernie Sanders is good for the Jews? How about Andy Warhol? The pope? 9/11? The Diaspora? Alexander the Great? Drake? The year 5775? These questions and many more have all been asked and answered. Apparently a lot of people still see this as a useful metric. “Is it good for the Jews?” is as much a punchline as a question. And yet, whether the question is asked explicitly or not, there remains a corner of our community that brings a “good for the Jews” mentality to every concern. A recent JTA Op-Ed was titled “Why campus ant... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—In the wake of the terrorist sprees in Paris and San Bernardino, world attention has fixated on the danger posed by the Islamic State to the West. While certainly merited, the acronym ISIS is not the only four-letter word to worry about. Iran is another. Iran? Wasn’t that pushed to the back burner by the nuclear deal reached this summer? According to what the White House at the time called a “historic agreement,” Iran was to take a number of specific steps to ensure the world that it was suspending its nuclear program in return... Full story
The Arab journalist whom the New York Times has hired to report on Israel has come up with the most “terrifying” example yet of Israeli oppression: the issuing of parking tickets to Palestinians. The reporter, Diaa Hadid, who describes herself as “an Australian of Lebanese & Egyptian descent,” previously served as public relations officer for the pro-Palestinian group “Ittijah.” Its director, Amir Makhloul, is in an Israeli prison for espionage on behalf of Hezbollah terrorists. Hadid’s resume also includes a stint as a columnist for the anti-... Full story
Even before the dust settled on the happy headlines proclaiming that after 30 years in federal prison, Jonathan Pollard was being released, we discovered that his release wasn’t the end of his sad saga. Pollard’s parole conditions are draconian. For the next five years he will be under curfew, barred from stepping outside his apartment after 7 pm. He is prohibited from surfing the Internet. Anyone hiring him will be required to allow law enforcement authorities full access to their computers. Pollard already lost one job due to this con... Full story
ORLANDO (JTA)—Standing before the burning bush, Moses asks of God, “Mi anochi?” Who am I to be the one who goes to Pharaoh? Though there are many reasons why Moses may have asked the question, a tip-off to what is really on Moses’ mind comes just a few verses later when Moses reminds God that he is “slow of speech and tongue.” In most commentaries, this is interpreted to mean that Moses has a severe speech impediment. God’s response to Moses’ disability is powerful. God wants him for his leadership qualities notwithstanding his disability, and... Full story
The massacre in San Bernardino by an Islamist husband-and-wife terror team forces us to recognize, once again, that the United States has to choose between isolationism and internationalism in its foreign policy. Put another way, it’s a choice between disengaging from the world’s most febrile regions, in the hope that doing so will put us out of harm’s way and rein in our “imperial” instincts, or actively engaging on our own terms, in the expectation that we can effectively counter rogue regimes and terrorist groups. This is where we get to a... Full story
By Christine DeSouza It is unbelievable how people rewrite history. On the Israel Video Network (www.israelvideonetwork.com) a Costco smoothie demonstrator was videoed as she proceeded to slam Jews. Standing in front of a food demonstration in a Costco in the San Francisco Bay area, two men were having a discussion when an employee interrupted them to say that Jews should leave Israel because “it is Palestinian land,” and that they should “go back where they came from.” “Where is that?” one of the men asked. “Go back to Europe,” she... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—If Israel does not take steps now to preserve the option of two states and secure its own destiny as a Jewish and democratic state, it will wake up one day soon to find out it’s too late. That was the overarching message communicated repeatedly to an Israel Policy Forum delegation of American Jewish leaders to Israel which I recently led. Over five days in November, the leaders met with a diverse array of Israeli politicians, Palestinian officials, security establishment figures, diplomats, journalists and representatives of... Full story
By Ben Cohen JNS.org Belgium’s justice minister came in for a fair bit of stick this week over some injudicious observations regarding the Nov. 13 Islamist terrorist massacre in Paris. “It’s no longer synagogues or the Jewish museums or police stations, it’s mass gatherings and public places,” said Koen Geens, as he tried to encapsulate the deadliest security dilemma that Europe has faced since the height of the Cold War. Of all the obvious terrorist targets that Geens could have picked, he chose two that were distinctly Jewish among a list of... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—Every time Palestinian leaders sit down at the negotiating table, or give a public speech, they never fail to raise the plight of the 700,000 Arab-Palestinians displaced when they refused to accept Israel’s existence in 1948. For too long, the State of Israel and the global Jewish community have done too little to memorialize and honor the other side of that story—the 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries. For many Jews, these are personal stories, family accounts told around the Shabbat table. It is now our duty to ensur... Full story
John Kerry is seeking to top up his several efforts to deal with the Middle East by joining the Israeli and international left in warning that Israel will have to accommodate itself to a single country, with a Palestinian majority, if it doesn’t make peace with a Palestinian state. As my late mother used to say when pressed, “Horse shit.” We are used to Mahmoud Abbas’ threats, more or less weekly, that if he doesn’t get what he wants he will have no choice but to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and present to Israel responsib... Full story
It is almost hard to believe that it has been just a year since the horrific events of Paris in January of 2015. The painful memories of the attack at the Charlie Hebdo magazine, followed by the murderous strike on the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, persist when we are forced to contend with all that has happened since. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that the times we live in are more tumultuous and uncertain than any that we have seen since the end of World War II. Rarely does a day go by where another innocent person doesn’t lose h... Full story
In an interview on CBS-TV’s “This Morning” last week, President Obama outlined his theory of the causes of terrorism: climate change is straining natural resources around the world, and “when people are not able to make a living or take care of their families,” they become “desperate,” and “as human beings are placed under strain, then bad things happen.” The next day, a middle-class Muslim couple who were not under any evident financial strain and were perfectly capable of taking care of their six-month old daughter, decided to massacre fourt... Full story
There are many issues one can debate in the Jewish community—endorsing a boycott of Israel is completely out of bounds. Yet, there remain strong voices who are simply opposed to Israel. Founded in 1940 by the sons of John D. Rockefeller, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund claims to be a “private, family foundation helping to advance social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable and peaceful world.” This organization who wants “peace” gave $140,000 in June to the Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization that openly endorses BDS and suppo... Full story
