Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA)—Following Swedish pro-Palestinian activists’ failed attempt to reach Gaza by sea, a Christian supporter of Israel from Sweden announced he would take dozens of pro-Zionists to Israel on his yacht. Stefan Abrahamsson announced Thursday on Facebook that his yacht, Elida, will set sail from Sweden on Aug. 25 to Israel to show solidarity with the Jewish state and Middle East Christians. “We want to break the silence of the severe persecution and cleansing of the Christian population that is taking place in this region,” he wrote. “As the... Full story
(JNS)—A new poll of Palestinians shows that more than 60 percent agree that the Palestinian Authority should not engage in negotiations with Israel mediated by the United States, according to results published on Monday. Overseen by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, the poll, which was conducted among 1,200 Arabs from Judea, Samaria and Gaza from June 26 to July 7, revealed that 45.6 percent of Palestinians oppose renewing negotiations with Israel. If presidential elections were held on the day of the survey, more than a third s... Full story
(JNS)-An incendiary kite landed in an Israeli vineyard in Samaria on Monday, starting an arson fire. The kite landed in the Tura Winery near Mount Gerizim in Samaria, close to the Tomb of Joseph, the biblical son of Jacob whose bones were buried in Israel following the Jewish exodus from Egypt. Though a fire was started, it was quickly extinguished and harm to the vineyard was prevented. According to Hadashot news, Palestinians in Judea and Samaria have begun utilizing the terrorist ploy... Full story
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (JTA)-Built in the 1990s in part to ease crowding in haredi Orthodox neighborhoods elsewhere in Israel, Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet is both an Orthodox boom town and a site of ongoing tensions between different streams of religious Jews. National-religious Jews have long complained of harassment by members of the haredi community, who style themselves as enforcers of strict codes for dress and conduct. Now there is another front in the simmering battle: several dozen haredi... Full story
(JNS)—Under the expert guidance of IDF Home Front Command, Israeli hospitals across the country are shoring up their ability to shift into war mode should a sudden conflict erupt without prior warning. In such a scenario, hospitals could, like the rest of the country, find themselves under heavy fire, yet still must be able to provide life-saving care for existing patients and the war-wounded. On Thursday, the Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat in northern Israel held an intensive drill, simulating a situation in which it came under heavy rocket f... Full story
Stephen Miller’s uncle calls him an ‘immigration hypocrite’ (JTA)—The uncle of Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, has accused his nephew of being an “immigration hypocrite” who supports policies that would have condemned his own Jewish family to death if they had been enacted a century ago. Writing in Politico, Miller’s maternal uncle David Glosser described how Miller’s great-great-grandfather Wolf-Leib Glosser fled the Belarusian shtetl of Antopol, arriving in the United States in 1903 “with $8 to his name.” “In the s... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—A team tasked with formulating a plan to address the Druze community’s discomfort with the nation-state law has presented its recommendations three days after it was assembled. The findings presented Wednesday will be turned over to a newly established ministerial committee chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will oversee its advancement and implementation. The controversial law with quasi-constitutional status passed last week enshrines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The law identifies Ara... Full story
(JNS)-Israel's newest air-defense system, David's Sling, made the headlines this week after going into action for the first time on the border with Syria. Although it appeared not to strike the target-in this case, two short-range missiles fired by the Assad regime against a rebel region near the Israeli border-that should not be seen as a major setback, defense experts have told JNS. Produced by Israeli defense company Rafael, in partnership with American defense firm Raytheon, the David's... Full story
(JNS)-When you drive into Israel's Sha'ar HaNegev Region in the northwestern Negev, the fields are burnt and black. The trees are broken, and the smell of acrid smoke stings the eyes and nose. "It is a very upsetting view," said Zeev Meidan, general manager of the Israeli Honey Council. Meidan, who in the past was employed as a beekeeper at the area's Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, has been spending extra time in the southern district to support the region's honey farmers, many of whom have been the... Full story
EFRAT, West Bank (JTA)-Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee laid bricks in a new neighborhood in this settlement in a ceremony Wednesday that took its language and cues from Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" rhetoric. During the ceremony in Efrat's Tamar neighborhood, organizers distributed red caps bearing the slogan "Build Israel Great Again" and spoke of how thankful they were for the president's support. Leaders of the Yesha Council, which represents the settlement movement,... Full story
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Hillel International announced that former Israeli Justice Minister and Member of Knesset Dr. Yossi Beilin has been elected to serve as chair of the board of Hillel Israel, a volunteer position. His appointment was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of Hillel Israel. In addition to his extensive public service career, Beilin is the visionary of the Birthright Israel program, which has brought more than 650,000 young Diaspora Jews to Israel for 10-day educational... Full story
(JTA)-It's been a dizzying few weeks for South African model and actress Shashi Naidoo, who transformed herself from a harsh critic of the Palestinians to what some are calling a "cover girl" for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. It all began in an Instagram post last month, when Naidoo called Gaza a "s***hole" and accused Palestinian leaders of diverting aid in order to feed its "ambition to annihilate Israel." She explained that she was defending a South African record producer w... Full story
(JNS)-The Israeli Defense Forces said it launched an airstrike on Wednesday night, killing seven terrorists from the Islamic State who had infiltrated Israeli territory in the Golan Heights along the Syrian border. According to the IDF, Israel had been tracking the seven armed suspects from the Islamic State terror group in the southern Golan Heights near the area of the triangle of Israel, Jordan and the demilitarized zone of Syria when the Israeli Air Force aircraft struck them. IDF Spokesman... Full story
(JTA)-It's been nearly three years since Jeremy Corbyn became the leader of Britain's Labour Party, and he has riled British Jews more than any other politician in recent history. Last week, Great Britain's three leading Jewish newspapers united in publishing a front-page editorial warning that a Corbyn premiership would constitute an "existential threat to Jewish life in this country." In May, the previous president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said Corbyn has "anti-Semitic views"... Full story
(JTA)-The election of former cricket star Imran Khan as Pakistan's new prime minister has raised eyebrows across the globe. He has promised a "new Pakistan," running on a light-on-policy nationalistic anti-corruption platform. Khan "is known for running a team of one, making impulsive decisions, contradicting himself and then using his enormous reserves of self-confidence and charisma to dig himself out," Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in The New York Times. Critics have questioned the legitimacy of... Full story
(Israel Hayom via JNS)—Two Palestinians, a 34-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy, were killed on Friday and 150 were wounded in a riot near the Israel-Gaza Strip border, Palestinian media reported over the weekend. According to the Israeli military, some 7,000 Palestinians took part in border demonstrations. The Israel Defense Forces opened fire to ward off rioters who threw rocks and firebombs, and rolled burning tires at the security fence in attempts to sabotage it. The IDF targeted a Hamas position in Gaza on Friday evening after P... Full story
Northern California Jewish camp cancels final session over forest fires (JTA)—The final summer session of Camp Tawonga in Northern California has been canceled due to smoke from the Ferguson Forest Fire. In a letter to parents also posted on social media, the director of the Jewish camp, Jamie Simon, said that “the U.S. Forest Service, the Tuolumne County Health Department and CAL FIRE all recommend that Camp Tawonga remains closed for at least another week due to unhealthy air quality and volatile fire conditions.” She also said the camp... Full story
DEVENTER, Netherlands (JTA)-Four years ago, Tom Furstenberg proudly carried into his synagogue its first Torah scroll since the Holocaust, when local Nazis destroyed the building's interior. The scroll's introduction in 2014 was an important moment for the Beth Shoshana Masorti community that Furstenberg helped establish in 2010 in this city of nearly 100,000 residents located 60 miles east of the capital Amsterdam. After all, it was proof that Jewish life had finally returned to a place where i... Full story
(JNS)-New legislation introduced in Congress recently is seeking to make American aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the U.N. refugee agency that is solely dedicated to the Palestinian refugees, contingent on reform. According to the legislation, introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), the "UNRWA Reform and Refugee Support Act would return UNRWA to its original framework and address this false narrative of an inflated refugee population." The bill seeks to make U.S. funding... Full story
(JTA)-Israel will launch a rocket from Florida in a bid to become the fourth country to reach the moon. Israel Aerospace Industries and the nonprofit SpaceIL announced Tuesday that they plan a December launch from Cape Canaveral to land on the moon on Feb. 13. The landing would culminate eight years of collaboration on the $88 million project. Private donations mostly paid for the project, including from the American businessman and Jewish philanthropist Sheldon Adelson. SpaceIL's president,... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The heavy stone that fell out of the Western Wall and came crashing down on a platform set aside for egalitarian prayer has been removed for examination and restoration, but the conversation about the reason for its sudden sky dive, including hints of divine intervention, keeps on going. The stone fell on Monday morning, hours after the area had been full of worshippers visiting the wall for Tisha b'Av, 25 hours of intense mourning for the destruction of the two Holy Temples in... Full story
On Thursday, Syrian state media reported that government forces had entered the town of Quneitra on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, reaching Israel's doorstep. According to the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's troops raised the nation's flag on Thursday afternoon. SCMM posted photographs from inside the town, where homes had been left badly damaged since Syria waged war. Several Syrians interviewed Thursday say they don't trust the Syri... Full story
(JTA)—Berlin issued a withering critique of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement that he would not remove Holocaust denial posts from the widely used social platform, stating that such a policy was contrary to German law. “There must be no place for anti-Semitism. This includes verbal and physical attacks on Jews as well as the denial of the Holocaust,” Justice Minister Katarina Barley said. “The latter is also punishable by us and will be strictly prosecuted.” In a statement to Politico Europe, a Justice Ministry spokeswoman... Full story
(MEMRI via JNS)—Speaking on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV, Islamic cleric Salah Nour cited the anti-Semitic hadith according to which the Muslims would fight the Jews on Judgment Day, and the trees and stones would give up the Jews hiding behind them. He praised the “virtue” of jihad, and said: “Islam will prevail, Allah willing, and the Muslims will rule the entire Earth.” His address aired on June 24.... Full story
Hundreds of family members, friends and acquaintances attended the funeral of Yotam Ovadia, 31, murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in a stabbing attack on Thursday night. Yotam was buried at Har Hamenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem, leaving two young children, Harel and Itai, and his wife Tal. “I don’t know what will happen to me and the children now,” Tal said Saturday, as quoted by Ynet. “I don’t know how to continue to be strong for the children. We were everything to him. The house was his kingdom.” “Yotam was a decent, modest and humble ma... Full story
