Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)—After eight years of dealing with an American president who considered establishing more “daylight” between the United States and Israel, the last 15 months has been a whole lot easier for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Unlike his predecessor, U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t think it’s his duty to disregard the verdict of Israeli democracy and “save Israel from itself,” or to tilt the diplomatic playing field in the direction of the Palestinians in the vain hope that they will make peace. Trump’s instinctual con...
(JNS)—Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman made history after telling The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg that his country recognized the right of the Jews to “their own land.” Though he added that the Saudis also care about the rights of Palestinians and the fate of “the holy mosque in Jerusalem,” the message he was sending to Muslims and Arabs was loud and clear. As far as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—the state that has styled itself the defender of Islamic holy places, and thus the self-styled moral leader of the Arab and Muslim worl...
(JNS)—At this year’s AIPAC conference, a great deal of attention was given to organizational efforts to present Israel as an attractive cause for Democrats and liberals to continue to embrace. As I noted earlier this month, while perils are associated with any attempt to “rebrand” the Jewish state without addressing the core issues of the conflict, the group got generally good reviews for working hard to address major concerns for the pro-Israel community. Fueling those worries was a recent Pew Research Center poll that highlighted the growing...
(JNS)—After more than a year of pretending that President Donald Trump was fomenting anti-Semitism, it’s been a bad month for some on the left. The fact that supporters of Louis Farrakhan lead the Women’s March, the movement organizing protests for the anti-Trump “resistance,” has proven deeply embarrassing. Responsible liberals and conservatives understand that the only thing to do about hate is to oppose it—no matter where its advocates fall on the margins of the political spectrum. But the focus on Farrakhan and his apologists has unsettl...
(JNS)—It turns out that in some cases, the Trump administration can behave just like its predecessors. President Donald Trump has been rightly accused of smashing precedents as the commander-in-chief, and many of his subordinates have behaved, spoken and tweeted in ways unlike anything we’ve seen before. Some of this unorthodox behavior is indeed troubling. But other decisions, including his willingness to buck the foreign-policy establishment on issues like the status of Jerusalem and trying to hold the Palestinian Authority responsible for...
(JNS)—After beating ISIS, the administration can’t stand by idly as the chaos in Syria leads to war between Israel and Iran’s Hezbollah auxiliaries. Donald Trump was elected president of the United States promising an “America First” foreign policy. That was an ominous echo of America’s pre-World War II isolationists, and as troubling as that sounded to anyone with a sense of history, it seemed to match his belief that the United States had spent too much blood and treasure on wars in the Middle East. Though he promised to defeat the terrori...
(JNS)—Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal after all. Instead of waiting until 2019 or 2020, the U.S. embassy to Israel will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May. On Friday, the Trump administration said the ceremony converting a Jerusalem consulate into the embassy would coincide with Israel’s 70th birthday celebrations. Unlike Trump’s initial announcement recognizing the holy city as Israel’s capital, the reaction to this latest one turned out to be substantially low-key. The Arab world and Muslim populations didn’t take to the streets to...
(JNS)—Perhaps the saddest thing about the death of the Rev. Billy Graham on Feb. 21, at the age of 99, was the fact that virtually every obituary gave prominent mention to what was arguably his worst moment. Graham was a giant of American evangelism, whose worldwide fame as a preacher eclipsed that of any American religious figure of the 20th century. But it was impossible to do an assessment of a life full of achievements without also talking about the fact that he was caught on tape expressing anti-Semitic sentiments while speaking with f...
The issue the organized Jewish world has struggled most with in recent years is how to keep communal peace at a time when the debate over Israel has become increasingly polarized. The result is a dialogue of the deaf that diminishes the community. That’s why I’m a firm believer in listening and reading opposing views. I know the differences between my positions and those of liberal friends are often arguments within the family about how to strengthen the Israel we all love. As a general rule, I don’t back efforts to exclude those with views tha...
The term “blacklist” is one that brings up memories of McCarthysim to most Americans. But those on a new Israeli “blacklist” who are to be blocked from entry to that country for promoting boycotts are undeserving of any sympathy. The 20 listed groups—singled out for their support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement—are a collection of vile hatemongers working not merely to cripple Israel’s economy, but to isolate it and to treat its people as pariahs who deserve to be attacked by terrorists. So it’s reasonable that...
We didn’t need the publication of a new book filled with behind-the-scenes gossip to know that Donald Trump is an unconventional and, at times, inappropriate president. His use of Twitter provides many examples of this fact. But amid another flurry of questionable tweets on Jan. 4, Trump also talked about threatening aid cuts to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Most of the mainstream media treated that idea as being as loopy as the latest exchange of insults with North Korea’s dictator. But while it’s easy to mock Trump’s social media habits,...
ByIn a demonstration of how completely at odds his views are from those of the foreign policy establishment, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman reportedly asked the State Department to stop using the term “occupied territories” and instead refer to the “West Bank.” According to accounts that have filtered out of Foggy Bottom, the State Department said no. But we are also told that after pressure “from above”—i.e. President Donald Trump, the current boss of everyone at State as well as Friedman—the issue has yet to be decided. If thi...
In the last two months, the avalanche of stories about sexual abuse and harassment has touched virtually every sector of American society. The revelations about deeply troubling behavior on the part of politicians, journalists and figures in the entertainment world have transfixed the country. As more victims come forward to tell their stories, the consequences have gone beyond the disgrace of some prominent individuals, the end of careers and, in Alabama, a surprising election result. What began with a shocking story about movie mogul Harvey...
In the end, perhaps only a president so completely divorced from diplomatic reality and utterly indifferent to international opinion could do it. Despite the difficulties and the manifest dangers involved with keeping America’s promise—enshrined in U.S. law passed by Congress—to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, President Donald Trump may actually do it sometime in the next week. The Wall Street Journal reported that the State Department had informed U.S. embassies around the world about a plan to make the move and t...
It’s difficult for Americans to sympathize with the rulers of Saudi Arabia. Though a longstanding ally of the U.S., the oil-rich theocracy has helped foment extremism around world by funding fundamentalist mosques and madrassas. That 15 of the 19 hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks were Saudis and not Iranians is something that can’t be forgotten. But the moment may have arrived when Riyadh may be providing some common sense advice Washington should heed. By taking steps to highlight the need for the West and its Arab allies to start add...
What are the details of the Middle East peace plan that President Donald Trump will use to craft what he hopes is the “ultimate deal?” Sometime in the next few months, they will be unveiled as part of an effort to revive the dead-in-the-water peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Though we’ll have to wait and see what exactly is in the proposal being cooked up by a team led by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and chief negotiator Jason Greenblatt, the only two things that seem certain are that it is likely to be accep...
One of the complaints about the organized Jewish community is that it is silencing criticism of Israel. Left-wingers paint a dismal picture of a Jewish community in denial about Israel’s sins and determined to squelch debate about the peace process or controversial issues like settlements. So it probably came as quite a shock to many American Jews to read what happened at Princeton University this past week when the Center for Jewish Life—as the campus Hillel is called—cancelled a speech by Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign ministe...
It was a minor news story when it broke in the summer of 2016. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas announced he was suing Great Britain over the Balfour Declaration, issued on Nov. 2, 1917. But as we prepare to observe the centennial of the document this week, it’s important to understand that although his lawsuit was a stunt, Abbas was serious. More than that, the symbolism of his protest tells us more about what is preventing peace between Israel and the Palestinians than any of the usual explanations about settlements, b...
Last month, former CIA officer Valerie Plame crossed a line on social media even the mainstream liberal media couldn’t ignore. Plame gained fame due to her unmasking at a time when her husband was a prominent critic of the George W. Bush administration’s Iraq War policy. But her status as a liberal icon took a hit when she retweeted an anti-Semitic polemic that claimed Jews were responsible for pushing the U.S. into wars in the Middle East for Israel’s sake. Plame defended the piece before eventually issuing a weasel-worded apology that furth...
For Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political opponents, his government’s woes aren’t just an opportunity to score political points at his expense. They also provide easy-to-understand explanations for the question that nags at the margins of every debate about American Jewish attitudes toward Israel. Every negative development or unpopular decision associated with the prime minister is used to rationalize and sometimes even justify the growing chasm between American Jews and Israelis. But a new study about America Jewish identity gives...
Is there anything that would entice liberal Jews to stand with President Donald Trump or to join with him in trashing former President Barack Obama’s legacy? The obvious answer is nothing. In the wake of Charlottesville, disgust with Trump is at an all-time high with most voters, but especially liberal Jews who were already appalled with him. Moreover, the longer Trump is in office, the better his predecessor looks to many Americans, if only for his more presidential temperament if not his policies. Yet a desire to defend Obama’s record has bee...
Many Americans know that the sickness at the heart of our political culture stems from a spirit of intolerance that has become the keynote of discourse. Liberals blame it on President Donald Trump and his supporters. But few of us seem able to recognize this behavior when it comes from those who share our views—which means that if you think Dennis Prager must be boycotted or believe Morton Klein is as much of a threat to American Jewry as Islamist terrorists, then don’t blame Trump for how bad things have gotten. Prager, a Los Ang...
As far as they are concerned, the U.S. Congress is just doing what it always does: pandering to the “Israel Lobby.” That’s how the foreign policy establishment and the left regard the bipartisan support for the Taylor Force Act, a bill named after a non-Jewish U.S. Army veteran slain in a Palestinian terror attack last year. The legislation would cut off American aid for the Palestinian Authority (PA) unless the PA stops funding terrorism. The bill passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Aug. 3 in a 17-4 vote, with all the commi...
The last two weeks was not a good time to be prime minister of Israel. A series of unfortunate events led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make decisions that wound up being blasted from both the left and the right. Those decisions were, at best, debatable. But the resulting tsunami of disparagement that accused him of simultaneously being intransigent and a weakling may tell us more about the nature of the conflict between Israel and its enemies than it does about his shortcomings. Though he deserves criticism, the most important...
To an objective observer, the crisis that erupted in the aftermath of a bloody terror attack near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount makes no sense. Three Arab terrorists used guns they had smuggled up to the compound July 14 to kill two Israeli policemen, both of whom happened to be Druze rather than Jewish. In response, Israeli authorities set up metal detectors to prevent a recurrence of the crime. The response to this from Palestinians was general outrage, violence and a promise of mass riots if the offending machines were not immediately removed. U...
