Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The Jewish state is fighting a war against “the forces of barbarism” for itself and for all decent countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told foreign reporters on Monday. “It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand,” he said. Netanyahu hopes that the world will back Israel, because “Israel’s fight is your fight,” and should “Hamas and Iran’s axis of evil win, you will be their next target,” he said. The “horrors of Hamas” show that the 21st century has not moved “beyond the barbaric horrors of the past” toward...
(JNS) — The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday rejected Knesset member Simcha Rothman’s request to issue a restraining order against 430 opponents of judicial reform, members of a WhatsApp messaging group called “Looking for and harassing Rothman.” “After weighing all the considerations, I found that the respondents’ activity apparently falls within the scope of a permissible political protest, in accordance with the rules of the democratic game,” said Judge Naeel Mohana. Such an order would restrict “the basic fundamental rights of the...
(JNS) - Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria are lining up to take a driving course that teaches survival skills in the event of a terrorist attack on the road. Courses began a month ago and 10 have been taught so far, with 24 additional communities requesting the course. "In each community, we'll teach it two to three times. We teach 20-to-25 people at a time," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, head of Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, which sponsors the course. Darshan-Leitner admits it's a litt...
(JNS) — Political heavyweights and prominent journalists discussed key issues affecting Israel and the Jewish people at the opening plenary of the American Jewish Committee’s second AJC Global Forum in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening. Those issues included rising antisemitism, the Abraham Accords and Israeli-Diaspora relations. As many as 1,000 people from 60 nations were in attendance at the opening event, with a total of 1,500 expected throughout the four-day forum. Ted Deutch, in his inaugural AJC Global Forum address as CEO, celebrated the suc...
(JNS) - Trans activists failed in their efforts to cancel a talk by U.S. journalist Abigail Shrier to promote the Hebrew-language translation of her 2020 book "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters." Activists' threats did succeed in driving the May 28 event out of Tel Aviv. Sella Meir, the Hebrew publisher, first intended to hold the book launch at the ZOA House cultural center, then moved it to Social Space, another Tel Aviv location, before transferring it to the c...
(JNS) - The Israeli right is determined to prove that the majority of the nation supports judicial reform with a "March of the Million" rally on Thursday evening, April 27, outside the Knesset in Jerusalem. According to organizers, 6 million shekels ($1.65 million) have been raised for the protest, 1 million shekels of that through crowdfunding and the rest through large donors and coalition parties. The Religious Zionism Party contributed 1.2 million shekels and the Likud Party 600,000...
(JNS) - While "dialogue" was a central theme of the "Israel at 75 General Assembly," the annual gathering of the Jewish Federations of North America, held this week in Tel Aviv to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Israel's birth, several of the key discussion topics appeared overwhelmingly one-sided. This was especially evident when it came to the foremost political issue of the day-judicial reform-a topic that has consumed Israel's political landscape for the past three months. Federation...
(JNS) - This year's March of the Living, the annual tribute to the 6 million held at the site of the former German death camp Auschwitz in Poland, was conducted under the theme of "Honoring Jewish heroism in the Holocaust." The event took place April 19, on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was the first time since the global pandemic that the March was held in its full format, with delegations from well over 25 countries and 10,000 participating. It falls one day before the historical...
(JNS) - Concerned Israeli parents are complaining that their children aren't learning even the basics of Judaism in the country's public schools. Activists say the issue goes beyond a failure to teach, claiming that there's a concerted effort to replace Jewish content with progressive material, financed largely by foreign actors. Still in its early stages, the movement echoes the fight against "wokeism" in the United States, where parents battle school boards over what they see as left-wing...
(JNS) - Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, an Islamic scholar and thinker, has dedicated his life to fighting Islamic extremism. Physically attacked for his positions and forced to flee his home in Australia when it was vandalized by extremists, it is perhaps no wonder he began the preface to his 2018 book, "The Tragedy of Islam: Admissions of a Muslim Imam," with the words: "It is highly likely that you will one day hear that I have been murdered." Tawhidi, who describes himself as the "Imam of Peace,"...
(JNS) — “Today, Theodor Herzl is best known for his beard, not his books,” laments Gil Troy, editor of “The Zionist Writings of Theodor Herzl,” in his introductory essay to a new edition of Herzl’s diaries. Troy, a professor of history at Canada’s McGill University now living in Israel, wants to make Zionism’s founders come alive for the next generation. His latest effort is a three-volume collection of Herzl’s writings. The brainchild behind the series is Matthew Miller, owner of Koren Publishers, a Jerusalem publishing house producing m...
(JNS) — Even before taking power, Benjamin Netanyahu has found himself on the defensive over his prospective coalition’s “fringe elements.” During an NBC interview on Sunday, Netanyahu felt obliged to declare, “I’m going to safeguard Israeli democracy.” However, legal analysts told JNS the danger to democracy may come from another corner, namely the actions of outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who called on local authorities to flout the incoming government’s directives. In a Dec. 1 open letter, Lapid urged Israeli municipalities...
(JNS) — In a Nov. 16 open letter to Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Twitter management, 180 nonprofit and civil rights organizations called on the social media giant to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism. “Jewish users are subject to unrelenting harassment on Twitter,” the letter said. “Twitter’s guidelines should afford protection to Jewish Twitter users from antisemitic content and harassment,” said the letter, signed by groups such as StopAntisemitism, The Lawfare Project, Students Su...
(JNS) — The recently struck Lebanon-Israel maritime border agreement may prove beneficial economically, but it will not benefit Israel’s security, analysts said during a policy webinar organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America on Thursday. Their take suggests that Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid overstated the benefits of the deal. “I think economically it’s a good deal. Strategically, we might face many problems as a consequence of this,” said IDF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, former Israeli national security...
(JNS) — Israel has rebuffed repeated Ukrainian requests to supply the war-torn country with its Iron Dome system and other military equipment. This week, Israel’s refusal came into the spotlight as Russia attacked Ukraine’s civilian centers using Iranian “kamikaze” drones. Ukraine said on Tuesday that it will formally request Israel to supply air defense systems. It had made informal requests until now. Israel has provided Ukraine with humanitarian aid, including a fully staffed $6.5 million field hospital. But its desire to maintain a delicat...
(JNS) - Meet the Israeli elections candidates: 1. Benjamin Netanyahu - Likud Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister and now head of the opposition, will attempt to win his sixth term as premier. He is credited with transforming Israel's heavily regulated economy into a capitalist, high-tech powerhouse. The most recent polls suggest that this time he will have enough Knesset seats to form a government. In the recent string of four rapid-fire elections, his right-wing bloc...
(JNS) — Diligently following a master plan worked out over 10 years ago, the Palestinian Authority is laying claim to large tracts of Israeli state land through illegal building. Resembling Potemkin villages, many structures stand empty, hollow, windowless, alone or clumped together. The land grab has been hugely successful because Israeli countermeasures have been so feeble, Jews living in the area tell JNS. “Their side is focused, determined and has a well-developed plan. Our side is unfocused, indecisive and in many cases not even aware of...
(JNS) — Despite repeated refrains by Biden administration officials that negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal cannot go on indefinitely, which the U.S. president himself reiterated during the Israel leg of his Middle East trip in mid-July, Washington has refused to set a deadline for ending talks even though they appear to be on life support and are possibly unsalvagable given Tehran’s recent claims that it could easily build a bomb. Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Dem...
(JNS) - The Jewish Agency, which helps Jews immigrate to Israel, stands on shaky ground in Russia, as a Moscow court is set to hold a trial on its dissolution August 19. Even though it's operating under a cloud of uncertainty, and immigration to Israel has skyrocketed, the Agency continues to operate business as usual, JNS has learned from a government source familiar with the matter. Since the outbreak of the war on Ukraine in February, 19,100 Russians have immigrated to Israel, a leap from...
(JNS) — With the dramatic announcement on June 20 by coalition leaders Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid of their intention to dissolve Israel’s government, the nation began bracing itself for its fifth round of elections in three years. A proposed date of Oct. 25 has already been set. However, elections could still be avoided if opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu succeeds in forming a government before the Knesset is dissolved. Can he do it? Netanyahu currently controls 55 Knesset seats. He needs 61, a bare minimum majority in Israel’s 120-s...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Israel on July 13. Analysts tell JNS that among the key topics to be discussed will be the Iran threat; a security alliance between Israel and Gulf states; the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem; the poor health of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas; Russia-Syria-Ukraine; and a new global “I2U2” coalition involving India. The Iranian threat Negotiations for a new nuclear deal with Iran have been on the ropes since April when the Islamic Republic said it would not return to talks in Vienna...
(JNS) — If the West does not stop Iran’s nuclear program in its tracks then the mullahs will soon get the bomb, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told The Telegraph in an interview on June 11. So, where do negotiations stand and how close is Iran to crossing the nuclear threshold? In March, efforts to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, more commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal—from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2018—appeared within reach. “Our view is that we are close. We have been close for some time...
(JNS) — A Knesset vote to renew a law, set to expire on June 30, that applies Israel’s legal system to citizens in Judea and Samaria, and has been in force as “emergency regulations” since the Six-Day War of 1967, went down in defeat on Monday night. Although these regulations have been extended without fanfare every five years, this time the government failed to muster the required votes and the bill failed to pass, 58 to 52. The law failed despite the opposition party led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supporting it in princip...
(JNS) — Conspiracy theories cast a shadow over the 75th World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), as hundreds of health officials and diplomats converged on Geneva last week. One of the assembly’s key goals—to draft a new agreement that would “strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response”—opened the U.N.-affiliated world body to accusations that it was attempting to usurp national governments’ powers to make health decisions. The conspiracy caught fire online as cultural, media and pol...
(JNS) — The Jewish presence in the Galilee is shrinking — in part, critics say, because of government policies that effectively discriminate against Jews in favor of Arabs, who constitute the vast majority of the area’s inhabitants. The stakes are high, say those warning of the danger, noting that a large ethnic minority controlling a significant bloc of territory can lead to irredentist movements. “The issue also exists in the Negev with the Bedouin, but the problem in the Galilee is much more serious,” Bentzi Lieberman, chairman of the Shilo...
