Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 97
When it comes to the security situation at Israel's borders in recent years, no border has been more perilous for the Jewish state as its southern boundary with the Gaza Strip. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the Palestinian terror group Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007. Since then, Gaza has given Israel three wars, thousands of rocket attacks, and a network of cross-border terror tunnels that Hamas is now trying to rebuild. Since the conclusion of the...
Jewish leaders in the United Kingdom have voiced their displeasure with the Labour Party amid an anti-Semitism scandal within its ranks that continues to engulf the country's second-largest party. With the reported suspension of at least 50 Labour members for anti-Semitic comments over the past two months, British-Jewish voters are also indicating that the scandal may have damaged their perception of the liberal party. Although the Labour Party's candidate for London mayor, Sadiq Khan, defeated...
On March 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise announcement that he would withdraw the “main part” of Russian forces from Syria, in an announcement that shocked many of the countries concerned about the ongoing conflict in the country, including Israel. The move by Putin came as Syrian peace talks began this week in Geneva, Switzerland between the Syrian government, and opposition and rebel groups in the wake of a ceasefire announced in late February between Russia and the United States. “I believe that the task put before the d...
The Indiana House of Representatives passed new legislation that targets businesses or other entities engaging in the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, marking the latest victory in the fight against BDS on the U.S. state level. House Bill 1378, which was introduced by Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma and passed unanimously by the legislature on Jan. 25, requires “the public retirement system to divest from businesses that engage in action or inaction to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel.” The bill’s next...
While Germany takes pride in confronting its Holocaust past and maintaining a strong relationship with Israel, the European nation's recent influx of more than a million Middle East migrants-many originating in countries like Syria and Iraq, which have deeply rooted anti-Israel and anti-Semitic cultures-has generated fear among German Jews that the refugees will undermine their safety. In October, an official German state intelligence document leaked to the German weekly newspaper Welt am...
The ongoing wave of Palestinian terrorism that has plagued Israel since last fall has also brought to the fore the Palestinians’ frustration with their own leadership. While Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has been blamed for inciting violence against Israelis, many Palestinians have become disillusioned with the PA’s corruption and inability to attain statehood. As such, Israeli leaders are increasingly concerned that internal Palestinian dissatisfaction could bring about the PA’s collapse, resulting in a dangerous polit...
While the threat of border clashes with Islamic State terrorists fighting in the Syrian civil war has concerned Israeli leaders for some time now, the recruitment of Israeli Arabs to form their own terror cells or launch lone wolf attacks inside of Israel-akin to the Paris and San Bernardino attacks late in 2015-has recently become a more serious threat for the Jewish state. "This is a developing threat for Israel, the possibility that [Islamic State] will take advantage of the new recruits to...
The ongoing wave of Palestinian terrorism that has plagued Israel since last fall has also brought to the fore the Palestinians' frustration with their own leadership. While Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has been blamed for inciting violence against Israelis, many Palestinians have become disillusioned with the PA's corruption and inability to attain statehood. As such, Israeli leaders are increasingly concerned that internal Palestinian dissatisfaction could bring about...
Amid heightened tensions between the two most powerful Muslim nations in the Middle East, experts say the loudest sound might be American silence. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shi'a Muslim dissident who was arrested in 2012 by Saudi authorities, was one of 47 men executed on Jan. 2 by Saudi authorities in the largest mass execution in decades. While nearly all of the 47 men killed had ties with Sunni Muslim terror groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, the inclusion of al-Nimr set off outrage in...
In a region full of challenges and short on solutions, reported cooperation between Hamas and the Islamic State branch in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula-considered by many experts to be the terror group's most potent offshoot-adds a new layer of threats to Middle East stability and especially to Israel. According to reports, the Gaza-ruling Palestinian terrorist organization and the Islamic State branch are collaborating on funding, smuggling, training, and even medical support. "It's a worrying...
Israel and Turkey are close to signing a deal to normalize diplomatic ties following a secret meeting in Switzerland between senior officials. Reports indicate that incoming Israeli Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and Joseph Ciechanover, who is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top envoy with Turkey, met with Turkish Foreign Ministry Director-General Feridun Sinirlioglu in Geneva to hash out an agreement. According to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, the two sides agreed that Israel would...
In recent years, the so-called “Arab Spring” uprisings, the Syrian civil war, and the growth of jihadist terror groups like Islamic State have countered the perception that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root cause of instability in the Middle East. Adding to the mix, mutual concern over the Iran nuclear deal and declining American leadership in the region has made ties between Israel and some Arab states warmer than ever before. In line with this narrative, Israel recently announced that it is opening its first-ever diplomatic off...
The Syrian civil war continues to fester and has now drawn in nearly every major world power, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Syria's neighbor of Turkey, who all have different and sometimes opposing interests. The geopolitical situation recently escalated to new heights on Nov. 24, when a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet near the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey, which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),...
Strained ties between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama in recent years have stood in contrast with a warm relationship between Netanyahu and Congress, particularly in the House of Representatives, which has been controlled by Republicans since 2011. Under the leadership of former House speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the House has steadfastly approved pro-Israel legislation such as financial support for the Iron Dome missile defense system and majority opposition (but not enough to override a...
The Hamas terrorist group is open about its mission of destroying Israel. But the current wave of Palestinian terror consuming the Jewish state has led Israeli leaders to instead blame the unrest on Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas over his failure to condemn terrorism and his incitement of violence, casting doubt on the common assessment of Abbas as a moderate by Western governments and media. Under Abbas, the PA has not held formal elections since 2006 and only maintains control in the West Bank after being ousted from Gaza...
The bloody and seemingly endless civil war in Syria has taken a new twist over the past month, with reports emerging that Russia has started to significantly beef up its military presence to help its longtime ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, continue his fight against rebel groups and terrorist organizations like Islamic State. At the same time, Israel has grown increasingly concerned with the continued destabilization of Syria and Russia's possible exacerbation of that situation. Prime...
The Christian Zionist organization Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN) convened a special session at the United Nations in New York City on Aug. 11 to help Christians learn more about the impact of genocidal anti-Semitism. "Our goal for the program was to reach ambassadors of predominately Christian nations and to help them understand anti-Semitism and how to deal with it," Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of PJTN, told JNS.org. The session was attended by diplomats from 13 countries:...
He's a Jew from Brooklyn. He's running for president. But is Israel on his radar? Once considered a long shot for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has gained significant momentum in recent weeks. He now trails the presumptive nominee-former secretary of state Hillary Clinton-by only eight percentage points, according to a CNN/WMUR poll released in June. Sanders had a bar mitzvah and was raised in a "large Jewish community full of striving middle class...
As the Middle East grapples with the fallout of the so-called “Arab Spring” revolutions and the rise of terror groups like Islamic State, Arab states have sought increased cooperation with Israel in areas such as military and intelligence in order to confront ongoing threats. But will this cooperation, particularly when it comes to Egypt, lead to deeper Arab normalization of bilateral relations with the Jewish state? On May 28, prominent Egyptian historian Maged Farag drew headlines when he called for his country to normalize relations wit...
As Islamic terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East sink to new levels of brutality, the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis and launched thousands of rockets at the Jewish state, finds itself facing a threat to its rule in Gaza. Over the last month, Islamic State-inspired jihadist groups in Gaza, who ironically argue that Hamas has been too lenient toward Israel and has failed to implement Islamic Sharia Law, have launched a campaign entailing both pr...
Controversy is swirling over conflicting reports as to whether or not the Pope Francis called Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas an "angel of peace" during a meeting at the Vatican. Pope Francis, who canonized two 19th-century nuns from what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine, met with Abbas at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, where he presented the PA leader with a bronze medallion and explained that it represented the "angel of peace destroying the bad spirit of war," purportedly...
With the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany) approaching a March 24 deadline for a "political framework agreement," Israel's objections to the parameters of the emerging deal have been highly publicized. But lesser known is the growing unease about the negotiations among many leading Arab states. For nations such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, which all have Sunni Muslim-majority populations, Iran-which is...
A New York City-based federal jury on Monday ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to pay $218.5 million in reparations to American citizens who were targeted by terror attacks in Jerusalem, and to the victims’ families. The ruling is seen as a major victory for those seeking to hold so-called moderate Palestinian factions accountable for terrorism. “This is a significant ruling because the jury has discarded the long-held fiction that the Palestinians are not responsible for their act...
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has become a rising star in the Democratic Party through her focus on economic and social issues like income inequality and taking on Wall Street banks, triggering a groundswell of progressive support and calls for her to run for president. But less is known about her views on foreign policy and, by extension, Israel. Two recent moves by Warren may shed light on her outlook regarding issues prioritized by the Jewish state. She was one of four Democrats on the...
In the wake of Islamist terror attacks that killed a combined 16 people at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris, the leader of a prominent Christian-Jewish aid group told JNS.org that he is exploring ways to help French Jews immigrate to Israel. Brothers Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi, the two Muslim terrorists suspected to have carried out the Charlie Hebdo shooting, were killed Friday in a police raid on a printing shop in the Paris suburb of...
