Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)—According to The New York Times, the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has left Palestinian families seeing “no light at the end of the tunnel.” A feature published on the front page of Monday’s Times focuses on the despair felt by Palestinian families about the current stalemate in the peace process. They know that the Palestinian Authority that rules over their cities, towns and villages is horribly corrupt and unable to conclude a peace deal with Israel. And they understand that Israelis have no more faith i... Full story
(JNS)—You didn’t have to be French or Catholic to see the devastating fire at Notre-Dame de Paris as a tragedy for all humanity. The horrifying video of the flames engulfing the 13th-century structure and the iconic spire falling prompted heartfelt laments from a broad cross-section of persons, regardless of background or faith, who saw the great cathedral as a symbol of the best of Western civilization, or as many of them put it, “Judeo-Christian heritage.” Those words used to be considered an anodyne phrase that invoked the shared traditi... Full story
(JNS)—Discussions about intersectional theory used to be confined to the fever swamps of the far left. But this idea—the idea that seeks to link the struggle for civil rights in the United States with the Palestinian war on Israel’s existence and every other cause that can be falsely portrayed as one of the underprivileged against the privileged—has now gone mainstream. The latest evidence of the success of this attempt to dress up anti-Semitism in the clothing of human-rights advocacy arrives with the new edition of The New York Times Sunday... Full story
(JNS)—It was a day for Israelis to cheer the unprecedented degree of closeness between their nation and its sole superpower ally. Using his favorite form of communication, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted a clear intention to discard yet another longstanding U.S. policy in the Middle East. Trump’s declaration that he was going recognize Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights is correctly interpreted as a blatant interference in the upcoming Israeli elections on behalf of his friend and ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the sam... Full story
By Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS)—The announcement from the J Street lobby that it plans to sponsor a free trip this summer for college-age students to compete with the popular Birthright Israel program provoked predictable outrage. Many in the pro-Israel community already despise J Street as a Trojan horse organization that seeks to undermine support for the Jewish state. The idea of it shepherding Jewish kids around the West Bank to meet with Arabs who will trash Israel infuriates and deepens the resolve of some to exclude the left-wing lobby f... Full story
(JNS)—He’s done it again. After being called out for allegedly employing racist incitement against Israeli Arabs during election campaigns, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being attacked again for saying things that hurt the feelings of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens and offend the sensibilities of some Jews. This has led to renewed charges that he is guilty of denigrating Arabs and trashing the democratic nature of the state. But as with past claims, there’s less to this allegation than the anguished criticism directed at Netanya... Full story
(JNS)—Perhaps you thought Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) had been so thoroughly rebuked by the media and fellow Democrats for her anti-Semitic tweets that her campaign against Israel and its supporters had been put on hold. Maybe you also thought the opprobrium thrown in her direction had both shamed her and caused her colleagues to shun her in the manner that is usually dished out to people caught in open expressions of hate. If so, you were wrong. Omar remains the toast of liberal Washington these days as her prominent placement on the cover of R... Full story
(JNS)—Last week former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni announced that she was dropping out of politics. Livni came as close to being prime minister as you can get without actually having the job more than once. But only a decade after leading her party to a first-place finish in the 2009 Knesset election, she is finally giving up. Insiders put her down as a difficult political partner. That’s the generally accepted answer to the question of why, after being part of so many coalitions, she was left standing when the music stopped in the... Full story
(JNS)—It’s a familiar refrain. Critics of Israel aren’t content to merely bash the policies of the government of the Jewish state. As part of their indictment, they allege that Israeli politics is conducted in a racial manner. The accusations start with claims that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used racist rhetoric against Arab voters in 2015. The latest charge has been lodged against Netanyahu’s principle opponent in this year’s election, former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff General Benny Gantz. He is accused of basing hi... Full story
(JNS)—Is the effort to combat the BDS movement much ado about nothing? Given the abject failure of the campaign to boycott, divest and sanction Israel to harm the economy of the Jewish state or even to get American universities to endorse their efforts, there are those who consider all the fuss made about the issue a mistake. Much of the organized Jewish community has been treating the battle against BDS as a priority. That includes an effort geared towards lobbying state legislatures and now the U.S. Congress to pass laws that prevent those c... Full story
(JNS)—What the Jewish world needs most these days is inclusion. Yet the only sensible course of action open to Jewish community relations councils and other outreach groups is to set firm limits on who can or cannot enter the proverbial big Jewish tent. That sounds like a contradiction in terms, and in many ways it is. But the fact remains that at the very moment when institutions need to keep the gates wide open to attract as many Jews as possible, it’s just as important to send a loud message that there are some lines that cannot be cro... Full story
(JNS)—It may be that supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump and those who back the Israeli government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are now so closely aligned that the latter have no qualms about the Jewish state being dragged into one of the most contentious American political debates in living memory. But as much as Trump is popular in Israel for his support of the Jewish state, it’s likely that most of its citizens would be just as happy if their border-security policies were left out of the epic struggle over whe... Full story
(JNS)—Mixing food, especially ice-cream, with politics can be problematic. But Ben & Jerry’s—the iconic Vermont creamery founded by two Jewish guys from Long Island, N.Y.—became a huge success doing just that by convincing customers that their company’s support for progressive causes justified eating a fattening, if not tasty, dessert. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield hit the jackpot by building a business that billed itself as having a social conscience, identifying itself with the effort to save the rainforest and naming flavors after pop-cultu... Full story
(JNS)—Don’t blame it all on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It’s true that the most notorious member of the Democratic Party’s freshmen class in the House of Representatives was at the center of a media kerfuffle about her tweet comparing the standoff at the U.S.-Mexico border to the Holocaust. But the self-described Socialist firebrand isn’t the only one who’s been peddling this false analogy. The discussion about the Central American migrants who are trying to get into the United States has become inextricably tied to opinions about U.S. Presid... Full story
(JNS)—It’s not every day that Israel decides not to vote with the United States at the United Nations. It happened, however, on Nov. 13, when the two countries wound up on different sides when the U.N. General Assembly’s Third Committee held its biannual vote on a resolution that discouraged member nations from using the death penalty. The United States was one of 36 nations opposed to it. Israel was among the 123 countries that voted in favor of the motion. While it must be nice for Israeli diplomats to not, for a change, be the focus of the U... Full story
(JNS)—The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as the newest associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court was greeted by the organized Jewish world in the same manner as his nomination by U.S. President Donald Trump. While some organizations stayed silent, liberal-leaning Jewish groups generally deplored his ascension to the high court. The far smaller number of conservative-leaning groups that label themselves as Jewish cheered him. But the willingness of so many of the institutions that are tasked with representing Jewish interests to seek to drag... Full story
(JNS)—Though his fans thrill to his speeches, there’s little doubt that when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the U.N. General Assembly, few there listen. So when Netanyahu issued what seemed like a blockbuster revelation about a new Iranian nuclear site that was not being monitored by international inspectors, the reaction from the world body and the mainstream media was one of indifference. The reasons for this are no mystery. While Israel is often treated as a pariah nation at the United Nations, the disdain for Net... Full story
(JNS)—The international community made no secret of its contempt for U.S. President Donald Trump when he spoke to the U.N. General Assembly this week. So it was little surprise that when the president uttered a typical piece of Trumpian braggadocio with a tenuous connection to the truth—“In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country”—the response was peals of laughter from the normally restrained audience of officials in the chamber. For most of the media, this was... Full story
By Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS)—When the Trump administration announced that it was ending its funding of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) last week, the protests from the foreign-policy establishment were loud and anguished. As a New York Times op-ed that masqueraded as a news story sought to explain, UNRWA “matters” because the experts say it does. UNRWA has perpetuated the refugee problem it was established to solve and has become one of the chief obstacles to peace. It has served to keep the 1948 refugees and their desce... Full story
(JNS)—A demonstration last month in Washington consisting of two-dozen right-wing extremists set the world on its head. The event on the anniversary of last year’s Charlottesville rally by neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan was a pathetic flop, but it still generated massive coverage from the mainstream media. Many pundits, especially those from the Jewish community, urged us not to be deceived by the proof of their insignificance. After a year-and-a-half of touting the notion that the radical right was gaining influence, nothing could be all... Full story
(JNS)—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t on her way to Congress because of her hostility to the State of Israel. The upset victory of a Democratic Socialist over one of the highest ranking Democrats in Congress, as well as the boss of the party in New York City’s Queens County, did not hinge on her declaring that Israel was perpetrating a “massacre” in Gaza and her call for members of the party to join in denouncing the Jewish state. She beat Rep. Joe Crowley for a number of sound political reasons, including the demographics of a district... Full story
(JNS)—It was just another day at the office for U.N. officials. As it has done innumerable times in the last 50 years, on June 12, the General Assembly devoted an entire day of debate, procedural wrangling and voting to an effort to condemn Israel. As was the case with almost every previous effort of this kind, it succeeded. The resolution in this case was one that condemned Israel for the violence in recent weeks along the border with Gaza. It placed the sole blame on Israel, which, it said, used, “excessive, disproportionate and ind... Full story
(JNS) What do you do about a relative who loves you but won’t listen to your concerns? That’s the likely American Jewish reaction to news about a new poll of Israeli opinion that signals both good and bad news to those who care about the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. The good news is that overwhelming majorities of Israeli Jews believe that they are part of one Jewish people, rather than only possessing an Israeli (as opposed to fully Jewish) identity. They think that American Jewish support “is essential” for their securit... Full story
(JNS)—To Obama administration alumni and other detractors of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there was nothing all that new or noteworthy in his presentation of a treasure trove of Iranian nuclear intelligence obtained by the Mossad. While Netanyahu’s remarks contained dramatic revelations about a secret Iranian nuclear program and proof that Iran had been lying for years up to the implementation of the nuclear deal it concluded with the West, to the prime minister’s critics the speech was just another excuse to bash him for his styl... Full story
(JNS)—In what must be considered a public-relations coup of epic proportions, the New Israel Fund announced this week that it would be benefiting from the sales of copies of Anne Frank’s diary. The diary is among the most beloved books of the 20th century and the standard introduction to the Holocaust for many people. The foundation created by Anne’s father, Otto Frank—the sole member of the family to survive after being captured by the Nazis and sent to death camps—receives the proceeds from the bestseller and related works, and it will now... Full story
