Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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\BUDAPEST (JTA)-More than 2,000 Jewish athletes from 42 countries and thousands of spectators gathered at a stadium in the Hungarian capital for the opening of the 15th European Maccabi Games. With 180 athletes, Israel sent its largest ever delegation to Tuesday's opening ceremony of the event, which is the 15th edition of a tournament that take place every four years at a different European city. This year's games, which takes place at several venues, includes 20 categories, including...
(JNS)-Israel's politics got another major shakeup in recent days-this time on the right, with the announcement of the merger between Ayelet Shaked's New Right Party and Jewish Home. Like similar moves on the left last week, the latest union seeks to boost the election fortunes of the smaller parties on the right in order to cross the electoral threshold and have a stronger hand in coalition negotiations as the September elections approach. "From the beginning, I have said that the person who...
(JNS)—The United States on Wednesday blocked an attempt by several countries to get the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israel’s demolition earlier this week of illegally constructed buildings on the outskirts of eastern Jerusalem, Reuters reported on Thursday. Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa circulated a draft statement among the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday warning that the demolition “undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for just and lasting peace...
(JNS)—U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed three congressional resolutions on Wednesday that would have blocked billions of dollars in arms sales to countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In messages to the Senate justifying the move, Trump wrote that the resolutions “would weaken America’s global competitiveness and damage the important relationships we share with our allies and partners.” Congress is not expected to have the two-thirds majority required to override the decision. In May, the Trump administration said th...
(Israel Hayom via JNS)-Hezbollah is reportedly deploying its forces on the Lebanon-Israel border, The Daily Beast reported over the weekend, linking the move by the Iranian-backed Shi'ite terrorist group to the rising tensions in the Persian Gulf. According to the report, while the majority of the deployment has taken place on the Lebanon-Israel border, Hezbollah has also bolstered its forces in the Syrian Golan Heights. A Hezbollah commander The Daily Beast identified only as "Samir" said the g...
(JNS)-Michał Laszczkowski, CEO of Poland's Cultural Heritage Foundation, spends a great deal of time discussing Jewish law with rabbis at various Jewish cemeteries across Poland; in fact, it's safe to say that he does so much more than the average Jew. And yet, Laszczkowski is not himself Jewish. As the visionary behind the $28 million restoration and documenting of Jewish sepulchral heritage in Poland, Laszczkowski has helped the organization raise funds from Poland's Ministry of Culture and...
Man shot outside of Miami synagogue By Marcy Oster (JTA)—A man was shot outside of a synagogue in North Miami Beach. The victim was shot several times in the leg on Sunday evening, as he stood outside of the Young Israel of Greater Miami synagogue waiting for daily prayers to begin, according to multiple reports. Police told local media that a man got out of a black Chevrolet Impala and opened fire, striking the victim several times in the leg. Police chaplain Mark Rosenberg identified the victim to VIN News as 69-year-old Warren Lipschutz. T...
(JNS) — Losing members of one’s family to violence is traumatic for anyone, let alone the very young. Unfortunately, this is something too many Israeli children have experienced—terrorism and war have torn asunder thousands of Israeli families. Fortunately, there is an organization in Israel that focuses on helping such children put their lives back together. OneFamily, a nonprofit organization recognized in Israel, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, rehabilitates, reintegrates and rebuilds the lives of children bereaved by wa...
(JTA)-In the capital of Lithuania, an institution formerly known as the Museum of Genocide Victims barely mentions the murder of nearly all the country's Jews by Nazis and locals, focusing instead on the years of abusive Soviet rule. In Kaunas, Lithuania's second-largest city, another so-called museum hosts festivals and summer camps on the grounds of a former concentration camp for Jews known as the Seventh Fort, where the victims are not commemorated. In the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, a...
(JNS) Boris Johnson overwhelmingly was elected by his Conservative Party on Tuesday to become the next party leader and prime minister of the United Kingdom. In his victory speech, Johnson, who defeated Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in the party race, promised that he would "deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn." Johnson, 55, who succeeded Theresa May, comes to power amid several crises wracking his country. He has to deal with a do-or-die Oct. 31 deadline to leave the...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Palestinians may aspire to a capital in Jerusalem, but do not have a right to one, President Donald Trump’s top Middle East peace envoy said. Jason Greenblatt on Tuesday was previewing the political segment of a long-awaited peace plan. “It is true that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority continue to assert that East Jerusalem must be a capital for the Palestinians,” Greenblatt said at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Middle East peace. “But let’s remember, an aspiration is not a right.” Greenblatt cautioned the diplomats...
(JTA)—No matter their political affiliation, all sides can agree that Boris Johnson, who has secured his Conservative Party’s vote to become the United Kingdom’s next prime minister, is a colorful character. As the mayor of London, a position he held for eight years until 2016, Johnson was lampooned by the media for his buffoonery. In one incident, he was wearing a helmet and waving British flags when he got stuck on a zip line that was supposed to be his dramatic entrance into the Olympic Park that year. Also in ’16, his first year as foreign...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s former justice minister Ayelet Shaked is head of the New Right party, replacing Naftali Bennett, the former education minister. The announcement came on Sunday night in Ramat Gan, after weeks of uncertainty about Shaked’s political future. Shaked and Bennett reportedly met on Saturday night prior to the announcement. Shaked and Bennett broke with the right-wing Jewish Home Party ahead of the April elections to form the New Right Party, which they said is based on a “full and equal partnership” between Orthodox...
(JNS)—The U.K. government has announced that it will be taking diplomatic and economic measures against Iran in the wake of the seizure of the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz earlier on Friday, but stopped short of calling for military action. British Foreign Secretary James Hunt warned of “serious consequences” on Sunday, and is expected to announce a series of diplomatic and economic measures aimed at Iran, possibly including pushing for the renewal of E.U. and U.N. sanctions, as well as the freezing of Irani...
(JNS)-Elan Carr, a Jew of Iraqi descent, was appointed Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, a senior diplomatic post that had been vacant for two years until he assumed it in February. Carr is a well-known pro-Israel figure in California, having served as the Los Angeles deputy district attorney before making an unsuccessful 2014 bid on the Republican ticket for Congress in the Democrat-heavy L.A 33rd district. His wife, Dahlia, is a physician, and he flies every weekend from...
Lamar Odom visits Lubavitcher Rebbe’s gravesite with his kids By Gabe Friedman (JTA)—Lamar Odom visited the New York gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the late leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, with his two children last week. “I heard he makes miracles happen,” the former NBA star said in an Instagram post. “It’s a miracle to be here at this place with my children, reflecting on a better life we will build together.” Tens of thousands of people, including non-Jewish celebrities, have visited Schneerson’s gravesite in Queens this...
(JNS)-The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted two resolutions on Wednesday, one condemning the anti-Israel BDS movement and another endorsing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The anti-Israel BDS resolution, which also reaffirms support for the Jewish state, currently has 340 co-sponsors. It was introduced by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Ann Wagner (R-Mo.). It currently has 340 co-sponsors: 172 Democrats and 168...
By Jackson Richman (JNS)-Former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, said on Friday that, if elected, he would undo US. President Donald Trump's relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem-the first candidate running next year for the highest office to explicitly say so. "We have to have a two-state solution, and I believe the administration made a mistake to move the embassy to Jerusalem," the former two-term Pennsylvania...
(JNS)—U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, have said that if elected president in 2020, each of them would keep the U.S. embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, despite criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump for making the move in May 2018. The three gave their answers to Axios. “Vice President Biden would not move the American embassy back to Tel Aviv,” said a campaign spokesperson. “But he would re-open our consulate in East[ern] Jerusalem to engage the Palestinians.” In March, the U.S. embassy i...
(JNS)—U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) compared Israel’s “dehumanization and racist policies” to 19th-century segregation in the United States. “There is continued dehumanization and racist policies by the State of Israel that violate international human rights, but also violate my core values of who I am as an American,” the freshman congresswoman told the left-wing outlet Jacobin, which published a Q&A with her on June 13. “ ‘Separate but equal’ doesn’t work. I know that my ancestors were killed, died, uprooted from their land,” she continue...
(Israel Hayom via JNS)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared his commitment on Wednesday to the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu was speaking at an event marking the 4oth anniversary of the Samaria Regional Council, held in the town of Revava. “Accept my commitment,” said Netanyahu. “It doesn’t come with a time limit: We won’t let any community in the land of Israel be uprooted in the name of a diplomatic plan. We don’t uproot people; we’re done with that nonsense. Israel under my leadership hasn’t and won...
(JTA)—Joe Biden said that Israel’s occupation is a “real” and “significant” problem, but would not go as far to say it is a “human rights crisis.” At a campaign event Friday in Dover, New Hampshire, the leading Democratic presidential candidate was asked the human rights crisis question by an activist who also asked if Biden would pressure Israel to end the occupation should he win the presidency. Biden first responded by saying that Israeli settlements are “unnecessary.” “The only answer is a two-state solution No. 1, No. 2 the Palestinian...
(JNS)-Turkey began to receive the S-400 air-defense missile-defense system on Friday despite U.S. warnings not to do so. The move by Turkey is likely to have "major ramifications" for the U.S.-Turkish relationship, according to Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. "Turkey will no longer be able to receive F-35 stealth jets and Turkish companies removed from the F-35 supply chain will lose $12 billion of revenue. Also, the United States is likely to...
(JNS)—Iran’s underground Fordow uranium-enrichment facility has not followed the 2015 nuclear deal, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Institute for Science and International Security. Apparently, it has “never been repurposed” in that “everything required to enrich uranium to weapons grade could be quickly reconstituted in the underground portion of the facility,” continued the report. The deal stated, “Iran will convert the Fordow facility into a nuclear, physics and technology centre. International collaboration...
(JNS)—U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone Wednesday about Iran, in addition to joint American-Israeli security interests, as Trump threatened that U.S. sanctions on Iran will be “increased substantially” in response to the regime last week exceeding the uranium-enrichment limit under the 2015 nuclear deal. “The two leaders discussed cooperation between the United States and Israel in advancing shared national-security interests, including efforts to prevent Iran’s malign actions i...
