Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1091 - 1115 of 2213
Polish-born American historian Jan T. Gross revealed new historical research about Polish-Jewish relations while speaking to a full house at the Bryan Glazer Family JCC in Tampa. Gross' research claims that Poles killed more Jews than Germans during World War II and his historical book "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland" has become very controversial. Currently, the Polish government is accusing Gross of "publicly insulting a nation" and threatening to... Full story
(JTA)-Is terrorism softening European attitudes toward Israel? When a Palestinian terrorist used a car to ram and kill an Israeli soldier in eastern Jerusalem in 2014, the European Union urged "restraint" and, without condemning the attack, called it merely "further painful evidence of the need to undertake serious efforts towards a sustainable peace agreement." The statement by EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini was "a typical EU reaction, which blames the victim for getting... Full story
(JNS.org)-A truck-ramming attack that killed four Israeli soldiers in their early 20s and injured at least 16 people at a Jerusalem bus stop Sunday was likely carried out by a supporter of the Islamic State terror group, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "We know the identity of the attacker, and according to all the signs he is a supporter of Islamic State," Netanyahu said while visiting the scene of the attack, adding that the terrorist act was similar to truck-rammings in... Full story
A Palestinian driver rammed a truck into a crowd of Israeli soldiers Sunday at the scenic Haas Promenade overlooking Jerusalem's Old City, killing four and injuring 16 others in a terror attack that immediately drew comparisons to recent vehicular attacks in Europe. "This attack is part of the jihad against us, and the [car-ramming] methods that are being employed are part of the same methods that we saw recently in Nice and Berlin," Dr. Mordechai Kedar, senior lecturer in the Department of... Full story
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org)-Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett announced Monday that his party is planning to draft a bill to annex the Jerusalem suburb of Ma'aleh Adumim. The community is located east of Jerusalem, beyond the 1967 lines. Bennett's announcement coincided with a Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting about the application of Israeli sovereignty to Ma'aleh Adumim. "Today, we are continuing along the path of [late Prime Minister] Levi Eshkol, who applied... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-About 200 Jews from around the world toured the West Bank in response to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's recent speech warning of the dangers of settlement expansion. The group, organized on short notice by Miami-based fashion designer Joseph Waks, visited Jewish communities and met with their leaders on Monday, Jan. 2, to show solidarity with the settlement movement. A few dozen of the participants flew in from various countries. Most were foreign citizens living in or... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expects a “new era” when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month. He said as much at a Chanukah candle-lighting ceremony Saturday, where he addressed the United Nations Security Council resolution passed a day earlier against Israeli settlements in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem that the Obama administration declined to veto. “The resolution that was passed at the U.N. yesterday is part of the swan song of the old world that is biased against Israel, but, my friends, we ar... Full story
Jared Kushner to be named Trump White House senior adviser (JTA)—Jared Kushner, the Orthodox Jewish son-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump, will be named senior adviser to the president, Trump transition officials reportedly have confirmed. The official announcement is expected as early as Tuesday, The New York Times and several other major news outlets reported Monday. Citing people close to the transition, the Times reported that Kushner’s title might be adjusted. A front-page article Sunday in the Times reported that Trump transition off... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Israel's leading security think tank has published a plan to redraw the map of the West Bank in a bid to consolidate major settlements and prevent the spread of others. The plan, presented Monday to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin as part of the Institute for National Security Studies' yearly strategic survey, calls for the government to allow construction in West Bank settlement blocs and Jerusalem. At the same time, it recommends a halt to construction in the 90 percent of the... Full story
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry slammed the Israeli government over settlement building, warning that the two-state solution is "in jeopardy," in a lengthy speech Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly called "almost as unbalanced" as the United Nations Security Council's recent anti-settlement resolution. "If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or Democratic, it cannot be both, and it won't ever really be at peace," Kerry said in his speech, which... Full story
By Jacob Kamaras JNS.org President Barack Obama sprang his much-anticipated "December surprise" on Israel at the United Nations, capping off 2016 with a bang as it relates to the Gregorian calendar year's major events surrounding the Jewish state. The following are 10 Israel news storylines that defined this past year: U.N. woes The Obama administration chose to abstain from a Dec. 23 vote on a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction beyond the 1967... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Emotions are running high following the Obama administration's decision to allow the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Here are seven questions aimed at making sense of what went down and what it could mean moving forward. 1. Did Obama just double down on failed "settlements first" strategy? Listening to President Barack Obama's aides, the decision to allow Friday's U.N. Security Council resolution to pass was a last-gasp move borne out of... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Ahead of the unknowns a Trump administration will bring to American Middle East policy, the Obama administration allowed a bracing reminder on Friday that the international community does not recognize the validity of Israel's presence in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. The U.S. abstention on the U.N. Security Council vote last week was hardly unprecedented, but neither was it entirely consistent with recent U.S. policy. The Obama administration did not quite endorse... Full story
NETANYA, Israel (JTA)-One fit young soldier scales a rope. Two others practice hand-to-hand combat. A large group marches across the sand. But those were just the inspirational photographs on the walls. The actual soldiers crowded in the one-room building here on the Orde Wingate army base were mostly paunchy middle-aged officers. On a Tuesday morning before sunrise, several dozen of them stood around in socks and workout gear as they prepared to weigh in for a session of Changes in Shape, the... Full story
Political correctness came under attack in Jerusalem Dec. 19 at a public policy summit convening conservative leaders from Israel, India, the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress. At the same time, the conservatives eagerly looked forward to the “new day” that would accompany Donald Trump’s forthcoming U.S. presidential administration. Joel Anand Samy—co-founder of the International Summit Leaders think tank, which co-hosted the Jerusalem Leaders Summit at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Israel’s capital—emphasized a new battlefront... Full story
Argentine court rules ex-president may have covered up Iranian bombing of Jewish center (JTA)—The appeals court in Buenos Aires has cleared the path to a criminal probe into former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner’s motives in cooperating with Iran on the investigation of the deadly 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center. In a 249-page ruling handed down Thursday, three judges wrote that the evidence presented “does not permit a justified dismissal of possible illicit actions” by Kirchner in connection with a deal between her and her adm... Full story
(JTA)-Aleppo, one of the world's oldest cities and Syria's largest metropolis, is synonymous with one of humanity's cruelest conflicts-now surpassing the siege of Sarajevo as the deadliest and longest-running battle for a city in our time. With an estimated 31,000 deaths, the battle for Aleppo has taken more than double the lives lost in Sarajevo. With total Syrian civilian deaths over the past five years reportedly totaling some 450,000, including 50,000 children, the latest atrocities in... Full story
Citizens of Israel, I would like to reassure you. The resolution that was adopted yesterday at the United Nations is distorted and shameful but we will overcome... it. The resolution determines that the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem is ‘occupied territory.’ This is delusional. The resolution determines that the Western Wall is ‘occupied territory.’ This too is delusional. There is nothing more absurd than calling the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter occupied territory. There is also an attempt here, which will not succeed... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Nearly six years ago, when President Barack Obama was set to elevate one of his top emissaries to the Jewish community to the Israel ambassadorship, Dan Shapiro asked for-and got-the endorsement of one of Obama's fiercest pro-Israel critics. "Dan has always spoken to us, patiently and carefully explaining the administration's position, and he does so with aplomb, with concern, and with intense appreciation of the other side's position," Morton Klein, the Zionist Organization of America president, said at the time. Don't expect... Full story
BERLIN (JTA)-Even before the deadly attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, Jews in Germany were divided in their approach to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Muslim countries since 2014. Citing a Jewish moral duty to aid the displaced, many Jewish organizations, synagogue groups and individuals have rallied to help the newcomers, including asylum seekers fleeing the civil war in Syria. But some Jews have warned that the influx of immigrants risks importing to Germany the... Full story
UN passes anti-settlement resolution, US abstains JTA—The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States abstaining. The resolution was adopted Friday afternoon with 14 votes in favor and only the U.S. abstention. It called Israeli settlements “a flagrant violation of international law” that damage the prospects of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sustained applause greeted the passage of the resolution. American presidents have long protected Israel from extreme censu... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-When Northwestern University's student Senate passed a resolution in February 2015 asking the university to divest from six corporations they said contributed to the violation of Palestinians' human rights, freshman Ross Krasner was hurt and surprised. The rhetoric of the measure, portraying Israel as an oppressor, was more extreme than what he had expected. Krasner decided to become more involved with the campus pro-Israel group, Wildcats for Israel, and became its president... Full story
NEW YORK—The Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, which serves as New York’s Holocaust Museum, has announced an international fellowship program for scholars, museum curators, artists and Holocaust educators supported by a $1,150,000 grant from The Vivian G. Prins Foundation. Vivian Prins was a successful businessman and entrepreneur who emigrated to the United States in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany. “The Foundation is proud to make this grant in honor of Bronia Brandman, a survivor of Auschwitz and one of the Museum... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-It's been nearly 50 years since Israel captured eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. For the past eight years, Nir Barkat has been this city's mayor. On Sunday evening, six months ahead of the "united Jerusalem" jubilee, Barkat received an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, where he gave the keynote speech. A staunch advocate of Israeli control over all of Jerusalem, he thanked... Full story
Israeli intruder charged with assault for breaking into Arizona home, holding child (JTA)—An Israeli man has been arrested in Arizona after he broke into a stranger’s apartment and was found holding the family’s 2-year-old child. The suspect, Oren Aharon Cohen, claimed he did not harm the toddler, whom he had drunkenly thought was “a midget.” An unnamed man in Tempe, Arizona, woke up to a find a stranger holding his crying daughter early morning last Thursday, The Washington Post reported. Cohen, 34, told the homeowner that he was his frien... Full story
