Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 26 - 43 of 43
(JNS) — As I was researching the Six-Day War fought 55 years ago, I stumbled across an article written by Christopher Sykes, the son of Sir Mark Sykes, the British diplomat who negotiated the Sykes-Picot agreement with François Georges-Picot. Christopher was a diplomat, soldier and foreign correspondent who wrote about the war in the February 1968 issue of Encounter. He made several keen observations that are relevant today. Sykes said that he had firm convictions about “the rights and wrongs of the opening of the June war; the need for a unit...
(JNS) — Supporters of the BDS movement against Israel claim they are not antisemitic. I have co/ncluded that they are correct in the sense that the word “antisemitism” is too weak to capture their depravity. It is not necessary to go into the myriad examples of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to define “antisemitism,” the word means hatred of Jews. Lots of individuals and groups hate Jews and have for centuries. More recently, a new form of anti-Semitism emerged in which “Israel” or “Zionist” is used as a euphemism for “Je...
(JNS) — I know many Jews from the older (than me) generation whose response to political issues was: “Is it good for the Jews?” The younger generations viewed this as myopic and anachronistic. Elderly Jews were particularistic; the younger “enlightened” Jews were universalistic. Many conservative Jews of all ages have become increasingly like their grandparents. Throughout the Trump administration, they could set aside his transgressions because he was in their view the most pro-Israel president in history. Dayenu. Now we have the controversy o...
(JNS) — As the evidence of war crimes committed by the Russians in Ukraine mounts, and President Joe Biden has already labeled Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal,” the United States should lay the groundwork for a war-crimes trial patterned after the Nuremberg trials following World War II. A tribunal should be formed with the most esteemed jurists from the United States, Britain, France, and perhaps one or more other countries, to ensure a fair and credible trial of Putin and the officers who carried out his orders. The Inter...
(JNS) — Many critics of Israel have joined Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in denouncing Israel because courts have determined that a group of Palestinian families are illegally living in homes owned by Jews in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. Rather than accept a compromise offered by the Supreme Court that would have allowed them to stay in their homes, the families turned it down and now face eviction (As of Wednesday, one of the families that did not appeal the eviction order reached a deal with the property owners that w...
(JNS) — At the risk of putting a target on my back, it has occurred to me that the proper response for much of the anti-Israel activity on and off campus should be a combination of derision, counter-attack and neglect. I’ve been dealing with anti-Semitism, Israel denial and Middle East issues since my college days and, after more than 40 years, I have concluded that too much time, money, and energy is being spent responding to the latter. Instead, we should simply say, “who cares?” Who cares, for example, what Peter Beinart and others of his...
(JNS) I first went to Israel when I was 21 and returned at least once a year until 2020, so I was thrilled to renew my streak in August. My wife and I were particularly anxious to see our son who we had not seen since he finished his army service. As you can imagine, getting into Israel was not easy and only possible at all because of our son being an Israeli citizen, since tourists were not being permitted to visit. We had to get an entry permit from the Israeli consulate, take a COVID-19 test and submit the result to the Israeli government 24...
(JNS) — For many of us, the world’s hypocrisy when it comes to Israel is self-evident, and the double standards applied to the only Jewish state are clearly anti-Semitic. Typically, we think about these biases when issues arise directly related to Israel, but it may be even more obvious to others if we consider the likely response if Israel engaged in some of the policies and activities of other countries. Imagine the reaction if … Israel announced it was planning to ban halal slaughter. The European Union’s highest court ruled in 2020 that co...
(JNS) — The Biden administration is determined to provide aid to the Palestinians in violation of the spirit, if not the letter of the Taylor Force Act, which bars U.S. aid from going to the Palestinian Authority (PA) so long as it continues its pay-to-slay policy. PA President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly said he will not end the payments to terrorists and, in recent months, has tried to restructure the means of payments in hopes President Joe Biden will ignore the deception. Regardless, the Palestinians don’t need the money and should not...
(JNS) — Regular readers of my column know that I like to bring some historical perspective to current affairs that is missing from most reporting and analysis. I happened upon some interesting tidbits that may help us understand the recent fighting between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, and the real reason peace is unlikely, if not impossible. Israel has been complaining since the signing of the Oslo Accords (and before) about Palestinian incitement to violence against Israeli Jews. The Israelis and various outside analysts have r...
(JNS) — It was telling that J Street, the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby, would invite to its annual conference Mahmoud Abbas, the anti-Israel, anti-peace, Holocaust-denying president of the Palestinian Authority. The lobby, whose hallmark is gullibility, soaked up the familiar propaganda from Abbas and joined him in castigating Israel while ignoring the tyrant’s intransigence and persecution of his own people. Both Abbas and J Street are hoping to return to the heyday of the Obama years when Israel was expected to make one-sided concess...
When Democrats failed to explicitly rebuke Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for her anti-Semitic remarks, they sent a disturbing message beyond the Beltway—namely, that it is acceptable to use anti-Semitic tropes without facing any consequences. This was the latest sign of the normalization of anti-Semitism, which is also reflected in the tolerance of anti-Semitism on college campuses, and the effect that it is beginning to have on younger Jews. I recently met with a group of high school students, and asked if any of them had experienced a...
The most offensive attacks made by Palestinians and their supporters against Israelis are comparisons to the Nazis. These analogies demonstrate a profound ignorance of history—and a malicious hatred of Jews. As an educational service to these ignoramuses and propagandists, I would like to provide some examples of what the Nazis did to the Jews. First, I must apologize for the graphic nature of some of the examples, but they were purposely chosen because they are so horrific that they are not often discussed. The discussion of the Holocaust is o...
Nations around the world have condemned the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying the recent move by President Trump is an obstacle to an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. But the real obstacle to peace is the stubborn refusal by Palestinian leaders to accept the reality of Israel as a permanent Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people. This refusal to accept reality can be labeled Palestinian Derangement Syndrome. As long as Palestinian leaders continue to embrace it, they will not agree to a fair a...
Journalists and pro-Israel activists often share a tendency to see current events as the beginning of history. I’ve been reminded of this lately by apocalyptic stories regarding anti-Semitism in the United States, the situation on college campuses and American public opinion. I’ve been perusing my archives of articles that I and others have written in the past and thought I’d share some historical observations in the next few columns to put present concerns in context. I hear people claiming the situation on campus today is worse than ever, but...
Donald Trump made an important speech on May 21at the Arab Islamic Summit in Saudi Arabia that was quickly forgotten in the cacophony of tweets, accusations and other news surrounding the president. It is worth looking at that address more closely, however, because he laid out in the starkest terms yet the truth about what amounts to a world war that few people want to acknowledge. The speech also clearly distinguishes Trump’s policies from those of his predecessor by explicitly identifying Islamic extremism as a global threat, acknowledging J...
While the anti-Semites continue to spin their wheels trying to convince college student governments to adopt meaningless divestment resolutions and persuade rock stars to boycott Israel, the prime ministers of Israel and India are having a lovefest and the world’s most populous democracy is signing contracts with Israel worth billions of dollars. What must be particularly galling to the BDS advocates is that India was once a vigorous adherent to the Arab League boycott. The change in India’s posture toward Israel did not happen overnight. Ind...
I am loath to criticize other organizations that are trying to help students and combat the BDS campaign on college campuses; however, I have also felt an obligation to correct misinformation put out to create hysteria about the alleged dangers faced by Jewish students. Selective use of extraordinary incidents and flawed data have been disseminated to create a picture of campuses across the country being engulfed with anti-Israel activity and anti-Semitism, a portrayal that is simply inaccurate. Earlier this year, I criticized the AMCHA...
