Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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“The Emperor’s New Clothes,” by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, was published in 1837. It has been adapted in many forms. Today, “the emperor has no clothes,” is a metaphor for people living or perpetrating a lie or are too stupid to admit that. In the original story, an emperor with an obsession for fancy clothes hires conmen posing as weavers to make him magnificent clothes that are so unique, they are invisible to those who are incompetent or stupid. One day, the “weavers” report that the emperor’s new clothes are finished. They...
Yeah, I’m celebrating. For the past two weeks, Israel (including the Mossad, IDF, and military intelligence) have shown unparalleled prowess and success in the global war on terror. First, thousands of Hezbollah beepers exploded on command. Then their walkie talkies. This is recognized as the most precise anti-terrorist operation ever. Before and after, Israel took credit for the targeted assassination of nearly all the top Hezbollah leaders. Israel targeted and destroyed countless Hezbollah missiles and launchers, along with other weapons a...
As the United Nations General Assembly convenes in New York this week, all eyes will be on Lebanon, and all daggers will be drawn to blame Israel. But in looking to ascribe blame, paraphrasing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, they should look no further than their own backyard. To that end, I launched a plan to send mirrors to each of the UN member states (and observers) to mount behind the microphone and their country’s name, so when they sit in the General Assembly and blame Israel, they can see where the real blame lies. Let’s be clear, eve...
The question was wrong, but the answer was wronger. Upon returning to the White House from his vacation, a reporter asked President Biden, “Mr. President, do you think it’s time for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more on this issue? Do you think he is doing enough (to free the hostages)?” Biden responded, “No.” The timing of the question, and Biden’s response, were significant. This was the day after the funeral of American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Jerusalem. Hersh was one of more than 250 people kidnapped by Hamas terrorists...
Recently, my social media has been overwhelmed with videos filmed by people on safari in Africa, capturing the moment when carnivorous animals attack, kill, and devour their prey. It’s fascinating to watch the instincts of the animals, as if they have taken a course in survival but, in fact, are intuitive. Projecting what it seems to me, sometimes the suffering of the animal being attacked and torn into pieces looks particularly cruel. While I have thought about human parallels this week, that cruelty seems so particularly relevant. This w...
While it’s not always appropriate to criticize a politician for something they don’t say, during the past several months, given the vile antisemitic protests that have taken place across the U.S. under the veil of “anti-Zionism,” one might have assumed that as a self-declared Zionist, President Biden would have shut down threats against Jews by affirming that he is also a Zionist. “When you vilify Zionists, you vilify me,” he could have said. A modern JFK “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner) moment. One can consider that an oversight, a la...
Sunday, July 7, is not just another day. It is 275 days since the inhuman Hamas invasion and massacre in Israel, slaughtering 1200 and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza. 120 are still in captivity in Gaza’s network of terror tunnels. Some may still be being held captive in the private homes of Hamas terrorist operatives, as were the four rescued in a bold IDF operation on June 8. Through forensic and other evidence, Israel has declared that a few dozen of the 120 hostages are already dead. But the actual number of hostages still alive is u...
There I stood, in Jerusalem’s Beit Ha’am theater, delivering remarks to hundreds of people gathered from some two dozen countries at the opening session of “March of the Nations.” I stood 10 meters from where Adolph Eichmann stood trial in 1961, behind bullet proof glass, and where he was sentenced. 62 years ago this week, Eichmann was executed for actual genocide and crimes against humanity, unlike the conflated obscene charges brought against Israel today. The “March of the Nations” was a redemptive respite we all needed. In the middle of a...
If you’re keeping score, to date 138 states have recognized the ‘State of Palestine,” most recently Ireland, Norway, and Spain. This begs the question, what are they recognizing? They have recognized a state that never existed, with a name never used before 1964, but whose national identity is that Israel “occupied” them in 1948. The first time the term Palestine was used was in the Second Century, over 100 years after Jesus was crucified, to subjugate and embarrass its indigenous people, the Jewish people, after a Jewish revolt to expel Rom...
Jerusalem, Israel - "Unprecedented." "Monumental." "Timely." "Powerful." These are just some of the words describing the upcoming Global Prayer for Israel, bringing thousands of Jews and Christians together from all over the world to pray for Israel. With Israel at war, and Christians standing with Israel and the Jewish people at levels that are unprecedented in history, Christians are experiencing the hate and persecution toward Israel and the Jewish people that's more than vicarious, but...
It's rare, if ever, that one sits at home watching news of an impending attack that's already been launched at your country. But that's exactly what I did last night. First the IDF issued instructions to keep Israelis safe, including closing all schools, banning gatherings of more than 1000 people, and what to do in case of an air raid siren. An hour or so later it was announced that Iran had already launched dozens (up to 150-200) armed drones at Israel that would take as long as 9 hours to...
Coming home to Israel after a trip overseas to anywhere, for any length of time, is always emotional. Choking back tears, in a matter of minutes I see the coast, cities with countless construction sites indicating growth and building for the future, low-lying houses and buildings surrounded by fertile cultivated fields. I anticipate seeing my family and sleeping in my own bed. Touchdown is often greeted with applause. I’ve never landed at any other airport where so many people applaud and get emotional. I’m home. Emotions continue minutes later...
Speaking at a press conference in Israel in the midst of another whirlwind Middle Eastern trip to seek a resolution to free the 136 hostages held in captivity by Hamas, Israel’s war on Hamas, and presumably reducing the immediate threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran in general, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a series of remarks that were foolish, and not conducive to a resolution of any of these. It’s shocking and embarrassing that the U.S. Secretary of State would do so, not just because it shows his foolishness on full dis...
There are many areas of agreement between Jews and Christians. For example, both emphasize the foundational importance of loving God and loving one’s neighbor, as well as the importance of living by the ethical ideals of the Torah and the Prophets. Both emphasize a final Day of Judgment where we give account for our lives before God. There are many more. Since Oct. 7, there have been obscene and outrageous lies and slander, along with tangible and genocidal threats against Israel and the Jewish people all over the world. One would be f...
Yes, that’s right. I agree with AOC. No, these were not words I ever expected I’d put together in the same sentence much less in that order. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is hateful, reckless, dangerous, factually challenged, and a member of the extremist wing of the Democratic Party. Other than the sun rising in the day and setting at night, and the existence of gravity (I assume she agrees), there’s nothing I can think of that I ever would have agreed on with her. This highlights the saying that even a broken clock is right once...
There are reports circulating Israel of high-level talks involving negotiations to release more of the hostages brutally kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 and held captive in Gaza since. Reports of the hostages’ conditions from the 100+ who have been released are horrifying. They have suffered physical and psychological torture, starvation, held in underground cages in complete darkness, and suffered violent sexual assaults including gang raping women. Speculation is that many are dead, as some of the hostages’ bodies have been fou...
I always find it incredible that with the Jewish custom of an annual cycle of reading the entire Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy) in the course of a year brings us back to the same verses, stories, and narratives that we read a year earlier, but in a different place in our lives that we relate to it differently each year. It underscores that the Torah, God’s word, is relevant to each and every one of us, no matter where we are in our lives, how old we are, or our circumstances. I see that often in my life, but never more than this w...
A recent poll by the Arab World for Research and Development painted a vivid picture of who the innocent Palestinian Arabs are about whom the world is decrying their treatment in Israel’s war with Hamas, the same world that’s been an impotent deaf mute, overlooking decades of abuse and war crimes against the Palestinian Arabs under Hamas, the PLO, and Islamic Jihad. The current situation begs the question, for another conversation, as to whether anyone in the world actually cares about the well being of the Palestinian Arabs, or if this is jus...
In the Academy Awards, no one has ever heard of an award recipient standing before a jubilant and envious audience, and say, “No, thank you, I really didn’t make this film and I do not deserve your recognition. I am rescinding this honor you have bestowed upon me.” Of course not. People who don’t win an Oscar, the most prestigious award in the Hollywood film industry, repeatedly claim that it’s just an honoree to be nominated. They’d never return the coveted award. It sounds absurd even to think it. Unlike Miss Universe and other such beauty...
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...
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...
In the summer of 2014, my 17-year-old daughter knocked on my bedroom door late one night shortly after my wife and I had gone to sleep. She asked us not to come downstairs, saying that she had just brought two guys home. This was not an announcement I ever expected, except she didn’t use the word “guys.” She said soldiers. Israel was embroiled in what became known as Operation Protective Edge which began a few weeks after the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, one of whom was our neighbors’ nephew. The seven-week-long battle saw the Isl...
The Feast of Tabernacles is how many Christians refer to Sukkot, the biblical festival we celebrated this past week. It is also a multi-day event known in shorthand as “the Feast,” organized by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, arguably Israel’s largest annual tourist event, drawing thousands of Christians from all over the world since 1980. As I have done for years, this year I celebrated both. But this year, all the more so, I celebrated the thousands of Christians who came to Israel to celebrate with us all the more so, in li...
Perhaps you've heard the news. Fires torching hundreds of properties. Entire households burned to the ground. Every personal belonging lost. Thousands of lives destroyed. The devastation has been unprecedented, and it will take years to rebuild that which can be rebuilt. But the personal tragedies and lives lost may never heal. If you're in the West, you may have heard about the tremendous loss in Maui, Hawaii. Wildfires have left a trail of death and destruction. As horrible as that is, that's...
Israel’s former Prime Minister, Golda Meir, once said that there would only be peace when the Arabs loved their children more than they hated ours. Unfortunately, that is still true. However, there is an early 21st century addendum made no less true by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent diatribe at the United Nations: There will only be peace when the Arabs change their narrative so theirs is not mutually exclusive to, a rejection of, and in existential conflict with ours. Conflicting narratives are one thing, but when one...
