Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Donald Trump denied a claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. Embassy would move to Jerusalem within a year. “By the end of the year?” Trump said Wednesday in an interview with Reuters after being told of Netanyahu’s claim. “We’re talking about different scenarios—I mean obviously that would be on a temporary basis. We’re not really looking at that. That’s no.” Trump’s reference to moving the embassy on a “temporary basis” and then saying “we’re not really looking at that” suggested th...
(JNS)-A bomb was found, and then detonated in a controlled blast by IDF forces on Monday night at the Jewish holy site of Joseph's tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus, known biblically as Shechem. The explosive device was spotted during a security check prior to the arrival of 1,000 Jewish worshippers to the site overnight. As the tomb is located within Palestinian-controlled territory, visits by Jewish worshippers are sporadic, take place exclusively during night-time hours, and must be fully...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s Knesset by a one-vote margin approved a bill that will keep supermarkets and other businesses closed on the Sabbath. The so-called mini-markets bill passed Tuesday morning in a 58-57 vote on its second and third readings following a 15-hour filibuster by the opposition parties. Under the controversial measure, the interior minister can strike down new municipal bylaws that would allow some businesses to remain open on Shabbat. The current interior minister is Aryeh Deri, head of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas party. Cri...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India is occurring against the backdrop of a massive and still growing river of defense sales and technology transfers from Jerusalem to New Delhi. Israel's defense industries have been supplying ever-increasing numbers of cutting-edge weapons and platforms to India's military. Last April, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced a $2 billion sale of medium-range, surface-to-air missile defense systems to the Indian Army. IAI's Barak 8 air...
(JTA)-Moshe Holtzberg, who lost both his parents in a 2008 terror attack at the Chabad House in Mumbai, visited his old room accompanied by the Indian nanny who saved his life and by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Moshe, 11, known even now in the Indian media as "Baby Moshe," found the marks on his wall where his mother had measured his height as a toddler. Netanyahu marked his present height on the same wall during their visit on Thursday. It is the first time that Moshe, who...
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens says he will not step down amid blackmail allegations WASHINGTON (JTA)—Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens said he will not resign over allegations that he threatened to blackmail a one-time lover despite calls by state lawmakers of both parties. “I’m staying,” Greitens said this weekend in an interview with The Associated Press, his first since the allegations emerged earlier this month. “The mistake that I made was that I was engaged in a consensual relationship with a woman who was not my wife. That is a mistake f...
NEW YORK (JTA)—A new study has some troubling news for Israel and its supporters, who have come to rely on the political and financial support of the 25 percent of Americans who identify as evangelical Christians. “Older American evangelicals love Israel—but many younger evangelicals simply don’t care,” reads the summary of the study released last month by the Nashville-based evangelical research firm LifeWay Research. And while the summary may overstate the case, the survey, underwritten by Chosen People Ministries (which seeks Jewish co...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Donald Trump waived nuclear sanctions against Iran for what the White House said was the final time under the current deal. By the time the next waiver signing rolls around in 120 days, Trump wants a new deal in place that removes “sunset clauses” allowing Iran to resume enhanced enrichment of fissile material within a decade, three senior administration officials said Friday. Trump wants the bans to be permanent. “He wants to deny Iran access to nuclear weapons forever and not just for 10years,” one of the officials...
Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs has published a list of 20 anti-Israel organizations that actively support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement and whose activists will be denied entry into the Jewish state. “These organizations operate consistently against the State of Israel, while putting pressure on other organizations, institutions and countries to boycott Israel,” the ministry stated. “The organizations’ activities are carried out through a false propaganda campaign aimed at undermining Israel’s legitimacy in the w...
In a victory for the Israeli right, over 1,000 members of the Likud party’s Central Committee called unanimously Sunday evening for its representatives in government to formally annex parts of Judea and Samaria and allow unlimited construction in the Jewish communities. The resolution reads: “Fifty years after the liberation of Judea and Samaria, and with them Jerusalem, our eternal capital, the Likud Central Committee calls on Likud’s elected leaders to work to allow unhindered construction and to extend Israeli law and sovereignty in all t...
In 2017 alone, the Palestinian Authority (PA) compensated terrorists and their next of kin to the tune of more than $347 million, reported Israel's Defense Ministry to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday, according to a report by the Jerusalem Post. The figures came from the PA's own records, which also revealed a schedule of payments that increase significantly in proportion to the crime committed. Specifically, terrorists sentenced to three to five years in prison receive from...
Shortly after 8 p.m., the Magen David Adom (MDA) radio received reports of a shooting attack, apparently from the victim, who had served as an MDA volunteer. Paramedics from the town of Kedumim, a short drive from the scene of the attack, arrived on the scene and evacuated the victim to Meir Medical Centre in Kfar Saba, where his death was confirmed. “I left Kedumim in an MDA ambulance, arriving quickly at the scene. I saw on the side of the road, by the safety railing, a private vehicle with shooting markings on it,” said MDA paramedic Ely...
The Palestinians' head negotiator, Saeb Erekat, announced on Tuesday that any peace talks sponsored by the United States would be rejected until the Americans revoke their Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Erekat made these remarks to the Voice of Palestine radio station, reported the Palestinian Authority's (PA) official Wafa news site, referring to any future US-proposed solutions or calls to restart the peace process as "unacceptable to the Palestinian leadership" until US...
MIEDZYRZEC PODLASKI, Poland (JTA)-In a snowy woods near the border with Belarus, Jonny Daniels pulls muddy fishing waders over the pants of his tailored business suit and grabs a shovel from the trunk of his car. A London-born Israeli activist for Holocaust commemoration, Daniels, 31, had worn the suit for a meeting last year with Polish government officials in the country's east. And he put on the waders shortly after learning at that meeting of a village road made of Jewish headstones-which...
Alan Sagner, NJ developer who backed liberal and Jewish causes, is dead at 97 WHIPPANY, New Jersey (New Jersey Jewish News via JTA)—Alan Sagner, a former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a major benefactor of Jewish and liberal causes and the Democratic Party, died Jan. 3 at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 97 years old. A real estate developer and builder by profession, Sagner served as chairman of the Port Authority beginning in 1977, in an era when the regional transportation agency expanded rail s...
TEL AVIV-As a group of well-wishers waved tiny Israeli flags and shouted "Welcome home," Diane Hewitt of Hoboken, New Jersey, stepped off the El Al jet that had just flown her to Tel Aviv from New York, cradling her 8-year-old blind beagle, Annie, in her arms. A retired jewelry industry executive, Hewitt, 65, had always dreamed of moving to Israel, but she didn't want to leave behind her daughter, Sarah. But after Sarah herself immigrated to Israel a year ago and married an Israeli, there was...
The Palestinians rejected President DonaldTrump's threat to cut US aid to the Palestinian Authority over its refusal to return to the negotiations table, saying their "rights are not for sale." Trump tweeted Tuesday that "we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don't even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel." "We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that,...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Efforts by the Trump transition team to kill a 2016 UN Security Council resolution slamming Israel’s settlement policies were more widespread than was previously known, according to a Wall Street Journal report The report Friday said the effort encompassed a number of transition officials beyond Michael Flynn, the national security adviser-designate who was previously known to have made the effort. Also involved in the effort were Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who directed Flynn to make the calls, and Nikki Haley, the d...
At a press conference at the United Nations on Tuesday, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley fielded questions about the fate of US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, the primary UN agency responsible for funneling aid to the Palestinians. In a video posted by Reuters, Haley responded to a question regarding whether the US would continue to fund the agency in light of the Palestinians’ threat to “unleash all the weapons we have in the UN,” by saying, “[President Trump] doesn’t want to give any additional funding, or stop funding,...
(JTA)-If a Palestinian appears to be committing a terror attack, do they deserve to die on the spot? The answer is yes, says Michael Oren. The former Israeli ambassador to the United States, now a deputy minister in Israel's Cabinet, tweeted last week that the Israel Defense Forces should change its rules of engagement, such that soldiers should "shoot to kill" suspected terrorists, instead of just incapacitating them. "Soldiers who catch terrorists while carrying out attacks must be ordered to...
PARIS (JTA)—When Delphine Horvilleur, France’s best-known female rabbi, began appearing regularly in the media, her friends and relatives feared it would expose her to threats or attacks by anti-Semites. Several years later it appears they were only partially wrong. Horvilleur’s media profile does invite hate speech and abuse online—but mostly from other Jews. Following a reference to Jerusalem during a television interview last month, Horvilleur, 43, has again become the punching bag of the local branch of the Jewish Defense League and a vocal...
Barbra Streisand slams Golden Globes for not giving award to women directors JTA—Barbra Streisand criticized the sexism of Hollywood while presenting an award at the Golden Globes, pointing out that she is the only woman to have received its best director award. “Backstage I heard they said I was the only woman... to get the best director award, and you know, that was 1984: That was 34 years ago. Folks, time’s up!” Streisand said before presenting the final award of the night for best motion picture. Streisand’s best director award at the Go...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Iranians are taking to the streets in spontaneous demonstrations across the country to protest government corruption and a failing economy. The depth and breadth of popular Iranian anger have taken the West by surprise, nowhere more so than in Washington, where the focus on Iran since Donald Trump assumed the presidency has been on whether he would preserve the 2015 nuclear deal. Until Dec. 28, this was the calculus: Would Trump kill the agreement or be content with dismissing...
Love him or hate him, 2017 was a year dominated by President Donald Trump. The US-Israel relationship was no stranger to that, ranging from Trump's visit to the Jewish state in May to his historic decision on Jerusalem in December. At the same time, some of this year's other major stories in the Israeli-American arena had little or nothing to do with Trump. JNS takes a look back at the following five key moments in US-Israel relations during the past year: Trump's policy changes on Jerusalem On...
The Reform movement has started to retreat from its opposition to the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Following President Donald Trump’s recognition announcement, Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs issued a statement on Dec. 6 expressing “serious concern” that the president’s action “may well undercut the Administration’s peace process efforts and risk destabilizing the region.” The URJ’s opposition broke with the broad American Jewish communal support of the Jerusalem recogni...
