Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 13 of 13
(JNS) — Dear Mr. Friedman, Our paths have crossed many times over the years, and I have always been struck by your evident passion for Israel, a passion that resonates in your writings and columns on the Jewish state and the Middle East. However, as much as your enthusiasm for our country is clear, I respectfully find myself at odds with many of your recent perspectives on Israel. Your recent criticism of the Jewish state, while undoubtedly heartfelt, appears to be rooted more in emotion than facts and more in impulsive reactions than a g...
(JNS) — This week, the U.N. Human Rights Council published an 18-page report on the May 2021 conflict between Hamas and Israel. From the outset, Israel knew the report’s conclusion was predetermined and rightly refused to cooperate with a biased investigation, labeling it “a moral stain on the international community and the U.N.” This assessment has proved correct. The inquiry that led to the report — the first such inquiry to be open-ended — is led by Navi Pillay, a former UNHRC high commissioner who has spearheaded more investigati...
(JNS) — “Promise me, Danny, that you will always believe more in the threats of our enemies than in the promises of our allies.” Those were the words of the late Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel as he held my hands tightly at one of my final meetings with him in my role as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. The very tragic situation in which Ukraine finds itself must be a lesson to all of us, and for Israel, above all. I took on board Elie’s comment then, and I believe him more than ever now. Assurances from the international community...
(JNS) — This past Shabbat, we read the Torah portion of Shemot, where Moses is asked by God to go to Pharaoh and demand that he “let my people go.” It is Pharaoh who recognizes that the Jews are a nation. He is the first to call us Am Bnei Yisrael. He recognizes the unity and destiny that the people of Israel share, and he is afraid of our strength. Today, we see the reverse situation happening in Israel. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many restrictive regulations and the latest Omicron variant has seen the skies of Israel once again closed t...
(JNS)—Even before the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan was revealed earlier this month, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was planning his trip to New York City, where he plans to address the United Nations and protest the plan’s outline, which the P.A. has rejected outright. That has been the Palestinian leader’s modus operandi for the past 17 years, and it has kept him on the wrong path of sparing no effort to fight Israel in the international arena, which at times seems to be his primary goal—something far more importan...
(JNS)—Over the past several weeks, much discussion has been made about the events last spring on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Many have equivocated the actions of violent rioters inspired by Hamas (a terrorist organization) and those of Israel’s soldiers charged with defending the sovereignty of a liberal democracy. This abhorrent argument demonstrates a false moral equivalence and, above all, misses the context of the events. Last spring, Hamas-inspired rioters gathered on the Gazan side of the border fence with Israel in wha...
(JTA)—The world comes together every Jan. 27 to remember the most devastating tragedy in history: the Shoah. We remember the victims of the Nazi regime. The loved ones lost and the shameful treatment of human life and human dignity. We also make sure to remember our history, as painful as it may be, so we learn from it and never let it repeat itself. Most of all, we remember the bravery of the survivors. Those brave souls who are slipping away from us as they implore the next generation to heed the lessons of this darkest of periods with two s...
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...
Despite years of our warnings, the United States and the P5+1 powers reached a nuclear agreement with Iran. As we had feared, the deal is indeed extremely dangerous. Billions of dollars will soon flow into Iran and quickly make their way to the rockets and missiles of Hamas and Hezbollah. At the same time, the arms embargo that has stopped Iran from further developing its ballistic missile program will be lifted, threatening not just Israel, but also Europe and the U.S. Most importantly, in 10 years, when my daughter is called up for duty in...
With another Jerusalem Day (May 17) passing us by, we are once again witnesses to the usual platitudes from our leaders. We again hear the speeches about the unity of our capital and how it will never be divided again. These notions are of course all true, but Jerusalem is much more than an idea. It is a living city that must be safe for its inhabitants, and it must continue to grow and expand in a manner befitting of Israel’s largest city. Over the past year we have seen an unfortunate rise in rioting and violence by Arab extremists in J...
The Nov. 4 midterm election results have obvious implications for American domestic policy. For us in Israel, however, the new Congress and the last two years of President Barack Obama’s administration present a unique opportunity. Now is the perfect time to turn the page on U.S.-Israel relations. Our two governments should use this time to work together as a united front against the challenges facing the free world. While there will of course continue to be areas of disagreement between our governments, we both have much to gain by putting t...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—It is no secret that when Israel’s government announced this past September that we would be returning to the table to negotiate with the Palestinians, I was not optimistic about the prospects of this latest round of talks. I knew that as much as we desire peace and normalcy for this region, our Palestinian counterparts have never tired in making demands without any corresponding willingness to offer concessions and prove themselves as real negotiating partners. While many Israelis viewed these talks as a harmless diversion to...
Like most Israelis, I am an eternal optimist. Living day to day in our neighborhood and faced with continued threats to our legitimacy and even our existence, what choice do we have? That being said, I am extremely pessimistic about the latest round of peace talks that have been initiated in Washington, D.C. There is no shortage of reasons why I should be skeptical, but what worries me most are the personalities involved in these talks and the faulty premises they represent. Almost 20 years after the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin attempted...
