Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared on July 11, “Lebanon does not intend to pursue normalization with Israel,” though he left open the idea of “peace” as merely an absence of war. This ambiguous stance reflects Lebanon’s long-standing refusal to acknowledge Israel as a legitimate regional partner, despite shifting regional dynamics and significant recent Israeli military successes. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, its relationship with Lebanon has been marred by conflict, including major wars in 1978, 1982 and 2006. While Israeli...
(JNS) — There may be no more damning indictment of higher education’s moral collapse than its willingness to accept vast sums of money from authoritarian regimes and terror sponsors. For all their lofty rhetoric about social justice, human rights, free speech and academic freedom, universities are proving that their true allegiance is to cash. Georgetown University, one of the nation’s most prestigious Jesuit institutions, is a glaring case in point. Georgetown proclaims its mission is to promote justice, compassion and the common good. Yet i...
(JNS) — Zionism is the unwavering support for a Jewish state in its ancestral homeland. It is the recognition that, as the indigenous people of Israel, Jews have the right to live in peace and security without denying the rights of others. It is not about exclusion. It’s about survival, dignity and self-determination after thousands of years of persecution and exile. Every few years, the World Zionist Congress, the legislative body for the World Zionist Organization, gives Jewish communities worldwide the power to choose their rep...
(JNS) — There are many unknowns in the aftermath of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, but one thing is certain: It will spark renewed calls for that long-cherished diplomatic mirage of a two-state solution. It already has. Forgive me if I respond to calls for Palestinian statehood with profound skepticism, if not outright disbelief. It’s not just that the Hamas-led terror attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the broad support it received among Palestinians, has deepened Israelis distrust of Palestinians (assuming that was even possi...
(JNS) — When America’s largest teachers’ union severs ties with the Anti-Defamation League, it’s tempting to reach for the popcorn. After all, few organizations have done more to undermine Jewish security and moral clarity in recent years than the ADL — and few institutions have been more responsible for indoctrinating children with radical, antisemitic ideologies than the National Education Association. But the spectacle is no cause for amusement. It is, in fact, a grim warning — another signpost on the road to civilizational hell. Becau...
(JNS) — We Jews are in the worst of times. We are in an age of foolishness and of incredulity. We are in a season of darkness; in a winter of despair. We are challenged, to borrow from Neil Mach in his “Ask Phyliss Fannock,” with so much “malicious blather [that] craves a gullible audience.” We are under an onslaught from without, and we are being undermined from within. Truth is twisted; facts are meaningless. One recent example is the appearance of a website promoting the Antizionist Legal Studies Movement. This particular group is devoted t...
Some moments pierce through everything and demand to be written. The catastrophic flash flooding in central Texas is one of them. For those who missed it, the Guadalupe River rose more than 25 feet in under two hours. The violent flash flood swept through Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp near Hunt, Texas, as well as a nearby all-boys summer camp, Camp La Junta. While both were impacted, Camp Mystic took the brunt of the resulting devastation. When the flood hit, there were 750 girls, ages 8 to 17, there. As of now, 27 campers and...
(JNS) — Israel, with support from the United States, makes the Middle East and Europe safer. So, how is it being repaid? With calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, made unilaterally. Countries such as France, Ireland, Spain and Norway have already moved toward recognizing Palestinian statehood. The United Kingdom and others may soon follow. Some present this as a bold step toward peace. In reality, unilateral recognition undermines Israel’s security, emboldens extremists and sets back the cause of genuine peace. From Israel’s stand...
(JNS) — The same week in which Israel struck a profound blow to global evil, severely weakening the Iranian terror regime and incapacitating its proxies, also saw a surge in anti-Israel vitriol around the world. One of the most grotesque expressions came from British punk artist Bob Vylan, who chanted (together with his audience) “Death, Death to the IDF” at England’s largest music festival, broadcast by the BBC to millions. These and similar phenomena are deeply disturbing. They also intensify my gratitude at having left England more than 30...
(JNS) — Under the orders of U.S. President Donald Trump, on June 22, American airmen flew B-2 bombers tens of thousands of miles, releasing powerful “bunker-buster” bombs, destroying Iran’s nuclear-weapons factories as American sailors on a distant submarine fired salvos of dozens of Tomahawk missiles. The mission followed nearly two weeks of aerial assault by the Israel Air Force. Coordinated efforts between two allies ensured a military success with the nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, and other strategic facilities, either...
(JNS) — The American political landscape is continuously shifting, but some things remain constant. The growing support of the evangelical Christian community in the United States for Israel is a constant that impacts national politics more profoundly than many realize. It is no exaggeration to say that without the evangelical Christian community, U.S. support of Israel would look different today. Nowhere is this support more visible than at the annual Christians United for Israel Summit in Washington, D.C., the largest pro-Israel gathering i...
(JNS) — You can’t make this stuff up. Yet Nir Hefetz — a state witness in the ongoing bogus trial of his former boss, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu — just gave it the old college try. In an interview with Channel 12’s current-events program “Duach Matzav” (“situation report”), Hefetz made as assertion worthy of the same network’s left-wing satire program “Eretz Nehederet.” But he and his hosts, well-known Bibi-bashers Yaron Avraham and Einav Galili, discussed the claim in earnest. The chat came on the heels of a Truth Social...
(Investigative Project on Terrorism via JNS) — For weeks, debate over Israel’s 12-day war with Iran has revolved around nuclear enrichment capabilities, damage assessment, and the relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rarely does anyone pause to mention just how insane it is that the Islamic Republic exists almost exclusively to destroy Israel and America. As long as the current government controls Iran, neither Israel (the “Little Satan”) nor the United States (the “Big Satan”) is safe....
Dear Editor: One can only hope that the Heritage would be read by more people if only to see the frontpage picture of “The Lion has roared,” symbolizing how prayer and faith work. However, there is more for reading about the classy way Israel handled the “idealistic” flotilla by a young Swedish woman infatuated by Arafat’s headgear with little understanding of that evil Egyptian’s preoccupation with “Palestinian” destruction of the Jewish State (“Israel’s brilliant handling of the ‘flotilla’ affair,” by Ruth Blum, June 20 issue, page 4A). Equal...
In the wake of Israel’s remarkable attack on nuclear facilities, military and other strategic targets, and leaders of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran, I have received many questions about the situation, informally from people on social media, and in a variety of media interviews. Allow me to share some important background and perspective. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran was a monarchy under the Pahlavi dynasty, with Reza Shah (1925–1941) remembered as a respected modernizer who fostered ties with nations like Israel and the Uni...
“America can’t do a damn thing against us,” Ayatollah Khomeini bragged while holding our hostages. The Carter administration had undermined the shah’s government in favor of the Islamists who seized power in 1979 and then prevented the Tehran embassy’s Marine guards from defending the facility and the people inside against the Muslim “student” groups who claimed to be coming in peace. The “peaceful” student activists took over our embassy and held our people hostage. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei taunted President Trump with the same slogan i...
Israel is a strong country because its home front endures impossible travails. Imagine going through years of running to public shelters, safe rooms, or, when caught in a car during an Iranian, Houthi, Hamas or Hezbollah rocket, missile or drone attack, getting out and lying flat on the ground, hands protecting head. Israel’s triumph last year over the vaunted Hezbollah—the most lethal weapon in the arsenal of the Islamic Republic of Iran—and its campaign against Iran dubbed “Operation Rising Lion,” will be remembered for generations as a bibl...
(JNS) — History is being made right now as the Middle East—and perhaps the free world — has just been reshaped. On the morning of June 22 in central Israel, where I have been living and working, we were awoken to the spectacular news that U.S. President Donald Trump launched a deliberate, accurate and successful military attack on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The precision and scale of the operation has already sparked waves of speculation and analysis across global media channels. The targets of the strike — key nuclear facilities — been cent...
By Rabbi Steven Burg (JNS) — In the past few weeks, we have witnessed horrific acts of violence against American Jews, from the cold-blooded murder of Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., to the firebombing of peaceful marchers in Boulder, Colorado. These weren’t random acts. They were deliberate, targeted attacks fueled by hatred and antisemitism, which mainstream media have stoked for far too long. Even before Hamas’s horrific attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many mainstream media outlets and pundits throughout the world propa...
(JNS) — And so, once again, Israel is doing the heavy lifting for the rest of the world. It’s what Jews do. Israel’s pre-emptive and technically accomplished strike on Iran is the stuff of legend. Given how close Iran was to nuclear weaponry, Israel could wait no longer. Our tiny homeland is always under siege, always defamed, always endangered. It is also the bravest country on Earth. Israel is, truly, a miracle. How much is due to human genius, and how much does God play a hidden role? I really cannot say, but I began reciting psalms. The I...
By Jonathan Feldstein Overnight, literally 12 hours ago, Israel launched a bold, historic, and wildly successful military operation targeting Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, as well as eliminating key Iranian military and nuclear figures. The strike involved some 200 Israeli Air Force jets, along with sophisticated Mossad covert operations on the ground, and marks a pivotal moment in the long-standing shadow war between Israel and Iran. From both a military, and biblical-prophetic perspective, the operation carries profound i...
(JNS) — A Molotov cocktail attack on a group of Jewish rally-goers gathered in Boulder, Colo., was a stark reminder of the growing security threats facing Americans, particularly Jews. The attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa in 2023. In response, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new executive order that imposes travel restrictions on nationals from nearly 20 countries. In the order issued on June 4, Trump made his rationale clear: national security. He stated that he “must act to protect the nat...
(JNS) — In the wake of two major attacks on Jews in the past two weeks, I have seen appeals from the Jewish community calling on their non-Jewish neighbors to stand up and declare their outrage and solidarity. I understand the sentiment, but I believe that a more effective tactic at this point is not to urge people to stand up for my safety and well-being, but rather, to rise up for their own. Certainly, it would be nice if Americans en masse would voice their absolute intolerance for antisemitic violence, even if it did not impact them p...
(JNS) — Whatever happened to “Never Again?” Since the Holocaust, Jews have clung to this phrase as a talisman and a pledge. But “Never Again” has become “Not Again.” The Jewish community watches as violent extremists wage a war against our people, our culture and our homeland. Jewish bodies are littering our nation as pundits dither and pontificate away over definitions of terrorism and, ignoring the blood on the ground. It’s time to operationalize the phrase “Never Again.” Just days ago, at least eight Jewish victims lay on the ground, burn...
(JNS) — Tikkun Olam, the Jewish call to “repair the world,” has long inspired Jews to champion justice, defend the vulnerable and fight oppression. For much of the 20th century, that ethos naturally aligned with the Democratic Party, widely seen as the defender of civil rights and social progress. Jewish activists stood at the forefront of labor movements, civil-rights marches and anti-apartheid campaigns, believing that liberalism and Jewish values were one and the same. But the political landscape has changed—and dangerously so. The Democra...
