Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — It is crystal clear now that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is exploiting the war against Israel to destroy the existing State of Israel by using pressure, threats, blackmail, leaks, the media, diplomatic backstabbing, the Arab states, the E.U. and the U.N. Read this paragraph from Blinken memo: As I said in private and in public, we believe Palestinian people’s voices and aspirations must be at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza. We believe in Palestinian-led governance of Gaza, with Gaza unified with the West Ban...
(JTA) — When I saw the photos and videos posted by Hamas murdering entire Israeli families, raping women and killing young people at a music festival on Oct. 7 — I was horrified and shocked. These images ignited the flames of a dormant trauma I suffered 82 years ago in Baghdad, Iraq, when I was just 10 years old. On June 1 and 2, 1941, two months after a pro-Nazi coup that plagued Baghdad, mobs — aided by the police and soldiers — broke into Jewish homes, raping women and girls and murdering Jews mercilessly in a rampage that came to be know...
(JNS) — In the Western mind, proportionality in war is simply a numbers game. The side that inflicts more casualties is acting disproportionately, is in the wrong and may even be committing crimes against humanity. This has no basis in international law, but it is useful as a rhetorical weapon. Israel’s enemies make prodigious use of this numbers game, which is no surprise. After all, when Israel is fighting a terrorist entity that uses civilians as human shields in order to increase body counts, which are then used to manipulate jou...
(JNS) — Paul Kessler went to a pro-Hamas demonstration in the Los Angeles area waving an Israeli flag to stand down the crowd gathered to support the genocide of Jews. A pro-Hamas demonstrator, who tracked the 69-year-old before he approached him, clubbed Kessler in the head with a megaphone. Kessler fell to the ground and died of cerebral bleeding. Forty-eight hours after Kessler was killed, his murderer was still free, even though the police know who he is. Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryoff hadn’t arrested him because he couldn’t decid...
(JNS) — There’s a theme that emerges when defending the atrocities of Hamas and its supporters: “You made us do it.” And the next step beyond that is the suggestion that the crimes committed by Hamas and its supporters were really a form of entrapment by Israel. You see this argument in the suggestion that Israel deliberately lowered its guard to allow Hamas to kill, rape and kidnap Israelis. And you see it in Linda Sarsour, a politically influential Islamist and the godmother of Islamist antisemitism in America, arguing that the kidnap...
By Remember Haman? The book of Esther tells the story of this horrible man in the king’s court who planned to kill all the Jews in the Persian/Medes kingdom — a kingdom that stretched from India to Ethiopia. Haman gave 10,000 talents of silver to the king and asked to be able to destroy all the Jews in the land. The king took the money and then gave it for the use of the genocide of the Jews. Of course, we know the rest of the story, Esther called for a fast and then went to the king and revealed Haman’s plan. Haman was hung and the Jewis...
The other day, I was reading my grandson the Dr. Seuss classic, “In a People House.” It was a needed respite for me, a break from incessantly following the news of the war in Israel, albeit that the Red Alert app on my phone sounded throughout, indicating continued rocket fire from Hamas terrorists in Gaza at Israeli towns and cities. Just another day and another war crime in case you’re keeping score. Try as I might to separate myself from the war, even with the unadulterated pleasure of reading to my grandson, I just couldn’t. Between...
(JNS) — After 75 years of a successful Israel, it’s hard to imagine that in its early years, Zionism garnered less than 10 percent of global Jewry’s support. Many Jews preferred to assimilate into the nations in which they resided. Others were afraid that advocating for their own state would inspire antisemitic attacks. It was only after the Holocaust that global Jewry, especially American Jewry, came around to supporting Zionism. As Germany transformed into an antisemitic killing machine, world Jewry witnessed the great powers refuse to admit...
(JNS) — The former Israel bureau chief of The New York Times has discovered who is really to blame for the Hamas pogrom on Oct. 7: Israel. This vile bit of slander comes from the pen of Ethan Bronner, who spent 26 years at the Times posing as an objective journalist. That included the years 2008 to 2012, when he served as its Israel bureau chief. Bronner’s pro-Palestinian bias over the years has been well documented. (For dozens of examples, see camera.org). Unfortunately, that troubling record didn’t stop Bloomberg News from making him head...
(JNS) — In times of crisis, the public looks to its most revered leaders for insight and wisdom. But in the case of Barack Obama, what passes for wisdom is not only unwise but amoral. After weeks without saying much of anything about the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on Oct. 7, the 44th president has weighed in on the subject while appearing on a podcast hosted by former staffers Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vieter. In the wake of the greatest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, the most brazen example of t...
(JNS) — A month ago, all the sirens in Israel were not enough to warn of the descent of Hamas barbarians on the communities of Israel’s southern border. Now, fog has enveloped the future of the entire world, and only one certainty remains: We are disoriented, in shock. We now realize that there are many essential things we do not know: We do not know if there is a limit to human cruelty, after having witnessed live, through the cameras of the terrorists themselves, the atrocities committed against children in front of their mothers, against mot...
“Jews worldwide haven’t been this fearful in living memory” Jewish media outlets worldwide call for combating the surge in antisemitism Two decades ago, the former British Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, astutely likened antisemitism to a constantly evolving virus. One that, in the modern era, specifically targets the Jewish nation-state. He aptly described this prejudice as a deeply ingrained malignancy, perpetually lingering beneath the surface of society. For many of us in the global Jewish community, the great man’s words were not mer...
(JNS) — We hear repeatedly from Western leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden himself, that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. I beg to differ. There’s a big part of the Palestinian people who consider Hamas their representative—not only in the Gaza street but even in Judea and Samaria. Hamas represents a very important part of the Palestinian people, something to bear in mind when we speak of “the day after” the war. On the ground, many civilians in the Gaza Strip followed Hamas operatives into Israel to loot and murder, w...
Dear Editor: It is not widely known that Yahya Sinwar, one of the top planners of the massacre on Oct. 7 was once a prisoner in Israel for murdering Israelis. While in prison he developed a cancerous tumor on the brain. And yes, you guessed it. He was successfully operated on, had the tumor removed and in gratitude for saving his life he planned the murder of as many Israelis as possible. He was released from prison in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a former IDF soldier who had been abducted and was released in a prison swap in 2011. Another...
(JNS) — In the past weeks, anti-Israel protests on college campuses and in the streets of major cities have continued and grown in size. In Europe, the numbers of those expressing “solidarity with Palestine” are even greater as hundreds of thousands marched as Israel began its ground offensive inside the Gaza Strip. The images of massive throngs of individuals waving Palestinian flags and yelling insults about Israel and Jews have been widely published and broadcast. So, too, have accounts of incidents in which Jews were subjected to intim...
(JNS) — On Oct. 7, the Palestinian terror group Hamas committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Two of the most prominent and deplorable reactions to the slaughter have been the antisemitic denial of this crime and widespread media bias against Israel. A careful analysis of both phenomena exposes the absurdity of two antisemitic myths: That “all Jews are liars and are not to be trusted” and that “Jews control the world media.” Denial of the crimes seems to stem from the antisemites’ need to disbelieve anything Jews say. They s...
(JNS) — The curtain has finally been lifted on the raging antisemitism that has taken hold of college campuses over the course of decades. While it has festered ever since leftists, Marxists and other Jew-haters took over academia after their stint protesting the Vietnam War and other American transgressions, campus antisemitism is finally being covered by the media. Thus, it is now impossible to ignore. Undeniably and inexplicably, the frequency and number of rabid, protesting Jew-haters on campuses is far greater since Hamas’s genocidal att...
(JNS) — There are regular news accounts of children in Gaza being indoctrinated via United Nations Relief and Work Agency schools to dehumanize Jews, while portraying Israel as completely lacking in legitimacy. The role this played in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre may well have been decisive. IMPACT-se is the leading organization making this terror indoctrination in Gaza and Palestinian Authority schools accessible to English-speaking audiences. You can find examples on their website. Most Americans I know, when they hear about the brainwashing o...
(JNS) — The concept of proportionality in warfare is well-defined. It measures civilian casualties and collateral damage against military necessity. There are people who don’t like that, who prefer to think that every operation in an ostensibly “civilian” area and every civilian casualty is a war crime, but it isn’t. Anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant of or lying about international law. There is another concept in warfare that is less well-defined: the motivation of the parties to the conflict. It is more of a “you’ll know it when yo...
(JNS) — Since these false claims that Israel created Hamas or that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported Hamas are circulating across social media, let’s address them. Hamas is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization founded in Egypt in the 1920s, before the rebirth of the State of Israel, but which now has a presence in Israel and in much of the world. In its early days it coordinated with the Nazis and received support from Nazi Germany. The Gaza Strip used to be ruled by Egypt, which helps explain the strength of Ham...
(JNS) — A few days ago, I was finally able to speak to my friend Akiva. Like so many other reservists, he was called into active duty on Simchat Torah when the war broke out. “I need the things in my car,” he told me. Prior to our conversation, his battalion was transferred from Netanya to outside of Beersheva. Due to the rush, he was unable to collect his belongings before they left. “I’ll get it for you,” I replied, unsure how it would become a reality. In addition to the contents of his car, Akiva sent me a list of things his platoon nee...
(JNS) — Elie Wiesel famously wrote, “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” For many years, when it came to Israel, too many were silent. Part of it was fear, part of it might have been economic, part of it might have been simple ignorance. What happened on Oct. 7 should lay all that to rest. The bloody pogrom unleashed by Hamas tortured and then killed members of families in front of each other, beheaded and burned babies, raped and kidnapped women, child...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday outlined the IDF’s three-step plan for the war in Gaza. The plan calls for the complete destruction of Hamas’s terror infrastructure and ultimately a transition of power to a Palestinian group—likely the Palestinian Authority—with the backing of the United States. This plan, propped up by the United States during visits by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joe Biden, aligns with the regional goals of the United States and in many ways is essentially a much larger, costlier...
This article initially appeared in My Jewish Learning’s Shabbat newsletter Recharge. (JTA) — Abraham saw a world that was burning. A vivid midrash on last week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1 – 17:27) recounts the story of how the Jewish patriarch first encountered God. Abraham saw the world as a bira doleket, a flaming tower, and demanded indignantly, “Is there no one in charge?!” At this, God shows his face and admits, “I am the one in charge.” Thus begins Abraham’s relationship with the divine. Like Abraham before us, we too...
It was one of the best, most clear and resolute speeches calling out the evil of Hamas, clearly branding them as terrorists, and making the case why Israel needs to defeat this Islamist enemy. “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. (Hamas’) stated purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and murder of the Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed (with) no regard who pays the price.” At a time of war, one would e...
