Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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At least 7 JCCs receive bomb threats on Purim (JTA)—At least seven Jewish community centers in the United States and Canada received bomb threats while they were hosting Purim events. The threats, either called in or emailed, were reported Sunday at JCCs in Rochester, New York; Chicago; Indianapolis; Milwaukee; Cleveland; Houston, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Most of the JCCs were evacuated and searched. None of the threats turned out to be credible. For some of the centers it was their second threat in the past week. The threats are p...
The most recent round of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations failed because the Palestinian Authority (PA) responded to each Israeli concession with new demands and the Obama administration kept taking the Palestinians’ side, according to a veteran Israeli negotiator. Brigadier-General (ret.) Michael Herzog, a member of Israel’s negotiating teams since 1993, disclosed previously unknown details about the U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian talks that took place in 2013-2014, in an essay for The American Interest Feb. 27. Herzog disputed claims by for...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Every week, thousands of women across Israel gather to play a sport almost no one outside the country has heard of. For that matter, few Israelis knew about catchball, or "cadur-reshet" in Hebrew, a decade ago. But in recent years it has become the most popular sport among adult women in the country, with nearly all the players over 30 years old. "It's like a disease among middle-aged women here," said Naor Galili, the director-general of the Maccabi sports association in Israel....
Palestinian man alleged to be part of terror cell killed in shootout with Israeli troops JERUSALEM (JTA)—A Palestinian man who allegedly was part of a terror cell planning attack on Israeli targets was killed in a gunfight with Israeli troops in the West Bank. Basel al-A’araj was killed overnight Monday during an IDF arrest raid in Ramallah in the northern West Bank. Al-A’araj, 31, was shot and killed by Israeli troops after they surrounded the house where he was holed up in order to arrest him. He opened fire on the troops, according to the I...
Jewish journalist sticks up for Trump after being called a ‘liar’ (JTA)—The Jewish reporter whom President Donald Trump interrupted and accused of lying at a news conference defended Trump’s actions as owing to a misunderstanding. Jake Turx, a reporter for Ami Magazine, told Fox News that he believed Trump acted defensively to his question about rising anti-Semitism in America because of the “unfair” treatment the president was receiving in the media and allegations connected to anti-Semitism. “It’s very unfair what’s been done to him and I...
(JNS.org) A senior Iranian official warned Saturday that if the U.S. launches an attack on Iran, his country could hit the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv in a matter of minutes. “If the enemy chooses to shoot a missile in Iran’s direction, Tel Aviv will go up in flames from an Iranian missile before the [enemy’s] missile hits its target. This is not just a slogan, as only seven minutes are needed for an Iranian missile to hit Tel Aviv,” boasted Mojtaba Zonour, a member of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission. Zonour was also...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Settlement expansion “may not be helpful” in achieving peace, the Trump administration said in its first pronouncement on an issue that has confounded U.S.-Israel relations for decades. The White House announcement Thursday evening comes a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced major settlement building initiatives in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. “While we don’t believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump have been talking each other up plenty since the latter’s election upset in November. But those expecting Trump to turn his kind words and pledges on Israel into fast action may have to be patient. The starkest example of Trump walking back concrete promises is his retreat from what he had indicated during the transition period would be an accelerated push to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Asked Thursday on the Fox News Channel about whether he would mov...
Large swastika painted on car in Florida Jewish neighborhood (JTA)—A large swastika was spray-painted on the side of a car in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Boca Raton, Florida. The incident occurred early Sunday morning, according to local report. The white swastika took up the entire driver’s-side door of the black Ford Mustang. The owner of the car is a teenager who is visiting Israel, the Miami Herald reported. It is not know if the teen’s visit to Israel made him the intended target. “This is a direct hate message,” Yona Lunger, a...
(JTA)-With old favorites knocked out of France's presidential race and the far-right National Front party making worrisome gains, many Jews are joining fellow voters in supporting Emmanuel Macron, the 39-year-old independent politician and surprising front-runner. A banker who is 18 years younger than the average age of past presidents in France, Macron was widely regarded as doomed only two weeks ago, as no president from outside one of the country's main parties has ever been elected. But...
A year and a half after it was signed, the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers has held up, but the agreement’s future is now in doubt. Before being elected last November, President Donald Trump described the agreement with Iran as “the worst deal ever negotiated” and said he would act to dismantle it. This position echoes the frequent comments on the deal by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Following Trump’s election, Netanyahu expressed hope that he could work with Trump to undo the arrangement. Yet it remains far from clear...
Aside from its centrality to Jewish peoplehood as the home of the ancient Jewish Temples and now the modern state of Israel's capital, Jerusalem is also synonymous with Judaism for many Bible-reading Christians. As such, prominent pro-Israel Christian organizations are lining up to express their support for President Donald Trump's promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and to hold the president accountable for his words. Susan Michael, U.S. director for the...
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner reportedly worked to stop anti-LGBT executive order (JTA)—Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner reportedly helped push President Donald Trump to uphold a 2014 executive order protecting LGBT people from workplace discrimination. The president’s daughter and her husband, who serves as a White House senior adviser, worked to nix a draft executive order outlining how to roll back some of the protections granted by former President Barack Obama’s 2014 executive order, Politico reported Friday, citing “multiple sources...
(JTA)-Birthright trips, the 10-day Israel tours offered free to young Jews, are so much part of mainstream culture that they have been copied by other religions, parodied on television shows like "Broad City" and "Transparent," and debated by academics and activists But if your idea of Birthright is outdoor hikes, camel rides, visits to the Western Wall and flirty bus trips up and down the spine of Israel, think again. The third-party vendors that work with the Taglit-Birthright Israel...
"You are living in a paradise in comparison to the Syrian people. Shame on you. We are being killed," said Issam Zeitoun, who lives in the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights, in response to Arab-Israeli students who accused him of being a traitor because he was speaking in Israel. Zeitoun was one of two Syrian opposition figures who addressed Israelis Jan. 17 at Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace in Jerusalem. The Syrians shared their plight and...
Netanyahu and Trump to meet Feb. 15 WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will meet in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 15. Trump “looks forward to discussing strategic technological military and intelligence cooperation with the prime minister,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday at the daily briefing for reporters. ”Our relationship with the only democracy in the Middle East is crucial to the security of both our nations,” Spicer said. Netanyahu confirmed and welcomed the invitatio...
(JNS.org) Sunday's Mideast conference in Paris, attended by officials from some 70 countries, concluded that the "two-state solution" is the only way forward to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned against unilateral steps by either side. In their final communique, conference participants said they "call on each side... to refrain from unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of negotiations on final-status issues, including, inter alia, on Jerusalem, borders, security,...
WASHINGTON-American victims of Palestinian terrorism are applauding Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson's criticism of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and are urging him to press the PA to take specific anti-terror steps. During his Senate confirmation hearing Jan. 11, Tillerson said that while the PA has renounced terrorism, "it's one thing to renounce it and another thing to take serious actions to prevent it." He also said Palestinian leaders have to do "something to at least interrupt...
(JNS.org) U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a bill that seeks to cut off funding for the United Nations until U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israel’s settlement policy, is repealed. The bill—titled “The Safeguard Israel Act”—will cut off funding to the U.N. until the president certifies to Congress that Resolution 2334 has been repealed. “Twenty-two percent of the money to fund the U.N. comes from the American taxpayer,” Graham said. “I don’t think it’s a good investment for the America...
In the aftermath of Secretary of State John Kerry's recent speech defending the United Nations Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements and the Obama administration's refusal to veto the resolution, Israeli political figures are increasingly mulling the idea of annexing the West Bank and implementing a "one-state solution" during the incoming Donald Trump era. "The U.N. resolution destroyed any residual chance there might have been to achieve peace with the PLO (Palestine Liberati...
Donald Trump, taking office, pledges to put ‘America first’ (JTA)—President Donald Trump promised to put “America first” in his inaugural address, pledging to prevent other countries from taking advantage of the United States and to return control of the country to its people. Taking office at noon Friday following a tumultuous and divisive presidential campaign, Trump said his term would herald a return of power from the elite in Washington, D.C., to the American people. “Their victories have not been your victories, their triumphs have not be...
(JTA)-Two days after delegates from more than 70 nations attended the Paris summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is clear that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was wrong to label the meeting "useless." Admittedly the France-initiated event, which neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority attended, did not change the international community's understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nor did the gathering take any concrete steps to end the dispute. But it was...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—There’s a striking difference between competing bids in Congress addressing last month’s U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. It’s not that they differ on the United Nations—the two nonbinding congressional resolutions under consideration condemn the Security Council, as well as the outgoing Obama administration for abstaining and not exercising the U.S. veto. Here’s the difference: Missing from one of the resolutions are the word “two states.” In the other resolution, the two-state outcome feature...
The incoming Donald Trump presidency likely means a sharp break from President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. For Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel and two of the most reliable U.S. allies in the Middle East, the Trump administration will provide new opportunities and challenges going forward on issues such as Islamic extremism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the status of Jerusalem. Egypt Oren Kessler, an expert on Egypt and deputy director for research at the Foundation for Defense of Dem...
Golf club’s Jews debate admitting Obama over U.N. abstention (JTA)—Members of an exclusive, mostly Jewish golf club in Maryland are debating whether to admit President Barack Obama for membership over his decision to abstain from an anti-settlements vote at the United Nations. While the outgoing president has not indicated whether he will seek a membership at the Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, some club members were reported to be fiercely opposed to even entertaining the idea, the New York Post reported, citing anonymous sou...
