Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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JERUSALEM (JTA)-The new U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, presented his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem. During the ceremony Tuesday morning, Rivlin identified himself as a seventh-generation Jerusalemite and noted."Next week, we will celebrate 50 years since Jerusalem was united, and the Jewish people were able to once again pray at the Western Wall. But Jewish Jerusalem is not 50 years old. Since the days of King David, this city has been our capital. It is time...
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has welcomed a clarification from President Donald Trump's Administration that it does not regard the Western Wall in Jerusalem as a "part of the West Bank," contrary to earlier media reports. "We were dismayed by press accounts earlier today reporting that, in response to a request that Prime Minister Netanyahu accompany President Trump when he visits the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, unidentified U.S. officials...
JNS.org—Ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel, the head of a leading Christian Zionist organization called on the president to fulfill his election campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Pastor John Hagee, head of Christians United for Israel,noted in a letter published in the Washington Times that Trump will soon need to decide whether to postpone the embassy’s transfer to Jerusalem by at least half a year. In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which calls on the U.S. to move the embas...
Trump tells Netanyahu he ‘never mentioned Israel’ in meeting with Russians WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he “never mentioned Israel” in a meeting with Russian government officials in which he was alleged to have revealed highly classified information. “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name Israel,” Trump said Monday at a photo op with Netanyahu at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel on the second leg of his first overseas trip as president. “Never mentioned it duri...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Ten days before Donald Trump was inaugurated, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked visited the Jewish settlement in Hebron. A community of several hundred ensconced in a city of 150,000 Palestinians, Hebron's Jewish residents are considered to be among the most extremist and controversial Israeli settlers. Shaked, 41, wearing black jeans and a loose fleece, had come to support them. "No more excuses-in 10 days we need to keep building in Hebron!" she wrote on Facebook,...
An Israeli veterans organization has released a hard-hitting new video attacking Breaking the Silence—an Israeli NGO that publishes what it says are the anonymous testimonies of Israeli soldiers who participated in abuses against Palestinians—for “lying” about an incident in which a Palestinian prisoner was allegedly beaten unconscious. The group, Reservists on Duty, said that the original Hebrew version of the video had garnered one million views, triggering their decision to release it in English as well. “Organizations promoting BDS such as...
By Adam Abrams JNS.org As French citizens voted Sunday, their eventual president-elect reiterated previous statements ruling out unilateral French recognition of Palestinian statehood and committing to support for a two-state solution. On the eve of the election, pro-Europe centrist Emmanuel Macron of the En Marche party—who went on to win the presidential race with 64 percent of the vote, defeating far-right populist Marine Le Pen of the National Front party—said unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state would create instability and dam...
PARIS (JTA)-French Jews may have voted en masse for Emmanuel Macron in the final round of France's presidential elections, but that doesn't make him their dream president. Like many other supporters of the 39-year-old former investment banker, who on Sunday became the youngest French president in recent history, Jews voted for Macron mainly to block his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen. The centrist won with 65 percent of the vote to 34 percent for Le Pen. Leaders of French Jewry said they...
(JNS.org)-In his Independence Day message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled the "moment of triumph" in the 1948 creation of the state of Israel and praised the Jewish state's resilience. "It was a moment of triumph for our people. We had been scattered around the world for millennia. And then we returned to our ancient homeland, to build a safe haven, where we could live, and thrive," Netanyahu said in a video message. Netanyahu went on to praise the Israeli people for their ab...
(JNS.org) As millions of Israeli and Diaspora Jews marked Israel’s 69th Independence Day, the United Nations cultural body UNESCO voted Tuesday, May 2, to adopt its latest resolution denying Jewish ties to Jerusalem. The resolution—which passed in a 22-10 vote, with 23 abstentions—states that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and in particular the ‘basic law’ on Jerusalem, are null and vo...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—North Korea threatened Israel with “merciless, thousand-fold punishment” and labeled it the only “illegal possessor” of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. The Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang issued a statement Saturday blasting Israel after its defense minister, Avigdor Liberman, in an interview with the Hebrew-language news website Walla! called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a “madman” who is in charge of a “crazy and radical group” that is “undermining global stability.” Liberman said that Pyongyang “seems to have crosse...
(JTA)—We Americans use the phrase “the greatest generation” to describe those who grew up during the Depression, prevailed in World War II and contributed to America’s postwar prosperity and influence. But on a visit last week to Jewish communities in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Belarus’ Minsk and Bobruisk, I came to realize that elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union deserve this recognition as well. In many ways they are the other “greatest generation,” whose quiet heroism is inspiring and humbling. While their American Jewish counte...
NEW YORK-United States Ambassador Nikki Haley spoke before the World Jewish Congress' Plenary Assembly in New York on Tuesday, telling the 600 delegates from more than 90 countries, "I can safely say that it's a new day for Israel at the United Nations. I know it's a new day for Israel at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The United States will no longer be silent as Israel is unfairly attacked at the United Nations. Silence is not my thing anyway, but that's especially true when it comes...
NEW YORK—Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder was reelected for a third term as World Jewish Congress president on Monday, at the WJC’s 15th Plenary Assembly in New York. In his address to the more than 600 delegates from 90 countries, Lauder said: “I have done many things in my life, but there is no accomplishment, no title, no honor that I am more proud of than being president of the World Jewish Congress... we are one people, and we take care of each other.” Lauder spoke to the delegates about the challenges facing the Jewish world, including the ant...
Sebastian Gorka reportedly leaving White House (JTA)—Sebastian Gorka, the presidential aide accused of ties to a far-right Hungarian nationalist group, reportedly will be leaving the White House for another government position. According to a report Sunday in the political website The Hill, citing an unnamed senior White House official, Gorka will be taking a position in another federal agency. He currently serves as a deputy assistant to Donald Trump, advising the president on counterterrorism. The Washington Examiner first reported that Gorka...
A day after convicted Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti wrote a New York Times op-ed that omitted his crimes and terrorist organization membership and sparked scathing rebuke from the international community, the newspaper added a brief editor's note acknowledging the murder and terror-related convictions that led to his imprisonment. The April 16 piece-where the Times referred to Barghouti as a "Palestinian leader and parliamentarian"-was slammed by Israeli officials and Jewish leaders in...
Palestinian terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti was head of the Fatah supreme committee in the West Bank and leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, which between September 2000 and April 2002 carried out thousands of terror attacks against Israel. The following are some of the more heinous terror attacks for which he is responsible: • Jun 12, 2001—The murder of a Greek Orthodox monk on the road to Ma’ale Adumim. • Jan 17, 2002—The shooting attack during a bat mitzvah celebration at a banquet hall in Hadera. Six Israelis were killed in this attack, 26 we...
(JNS.org) A record number of Jews—approximately 1,600—visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the seven-day Passover holiday this year, breaking last year’s record of 1,015 during the same time, according to non-profit organization Yirah. Additionally, a record number of Jewish visits to the Temple Mount in a single day—495—also occurred during the Passover holiday. That exceeds the previous record of 448 visits set during last year’s Sukkot festivities. The highest number of Jewish visits to the Temple Mount was also set during Sukk...
(JNS.org) Newly released United Nations documents reveal that the Allied powers knew about the Jewish Holocaust carried out by Hitler's Nazi regime at least two-and-a-half years earlier than previously thought. As early as December 1942, the United States, the United Kingdom and the former Soviet Union were aware that at least two millions Jews were massacred by the Nazi regime, according to the British media outlet The Independent. And an additional five million Jews were at risk of being murde...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Iran is not living up to the “spirit” of the nuclear deal, President Donald Trump said, the latest in a flurry of mixed messages on the deal his administration has relayed in recent days. “As far as Iran is concerned, I think they are doing a tremendous disservice to an agreement that was signed,” Trump said Thursday in a joint appearance at the White House with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy. “They are not living up to the spirit of the agreement, I can tell you that, and we’re analyzing it very, very carefully, an...
Americans for Peace Now cancels annual Israel trip over anti-boycott law JERUSALEM (JTA)—Americans for Peace Now has canceled its annual trip to Israel over the country’s new anti-boycott law. The law passed last month by the Israeli Knesset bars entry to foreigners who publicly call for boycotting the Jewish state or its settlements. Americans for Peace Now is concerned that trip participants could be stopped at Ben Gurion International Airport and denied entry into Israel, Haaretz first reported this week, noting that the dovish group has...
While U.S.-Israel military ties have long been known for foreign aid packages, intelligence-sharing and jointly developed missile defense technology, veterans affairs could be a major new frontier in that relationship. The seeds of this added dimension to already storied Israeli-American bonds were planted during last year's U.S. presidential election, particularly in the eyes of Israeli government officials tasked with the care of injured and released IDF soldiers. Israeli Defense Ministry offi...
While the international community hangs on to visions of a two-state solution, Israeli public opinion is unified in asserting that the establishment of a Palestinian state is unrealistic and undesirable. Only 12 percent of Jewish Israelis believe a West Bank withdrawal would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a survey published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairsat the end of March. Jewish support for withdrawal from the West Bank has decreased from 60 percent in 2005 to 36 percent in 2017. The survey also found that 79...
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority announced Thursday that it will suspend ties with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East over changes that make the agency’s school curriculum more sympathetic to Israel. The PA’s Education Ministry called the changes an “affront to the Palestinian people, its history and struggles,” and vowed the suspension will not change until UNRWA reverses the changes. UNRWA schools serve more than 312,000 Palestinian refugee children, including 262,000 students in Gaza as well...
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he will take "unprecedented steps" to end the split between the PA-run territories in the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. In a speech to Arab ambassadors in Bahrain, Abbas said he was shocked at Hamas's decision in March to form an administrative committee to run affairs in Gaza. "After 10 years in which we sent financial support to our people in Gaza, we were surprised by this unprecedented step," Abbas said. "Thus, we will...
