Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry implied that the world would be better served if the media did not report about terrorism as often. “Perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn’t cover it quite as much. People wouldn’t know what’s going on,” Kerry said to the press during a meeting in Bangladesh. “No country is immune from terrorism. It’s easy to terrorize. Government and law enforcement have to be correct 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. But if you decide one day you’re going to be a terrorist and y...
Trump adviser endorses Netanyahu claim of ‘ethnic cleansing’ by Palestinians WASHINGTON (JTA)—An adviser to Donald Trump and his presidential campaign backed up Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the Palestinian demand for a removal of settlements amounts to “ethnic cleansing.” “The prime minister of Israel correctly observes that the Palestinian demand to remove all Jews from their ancestral homeland in Judea and Samaria is nothing short of an attempt at ethnic cleansing,” David Friedman, a longtime lawyer to the Republic...
By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Trump and Clinton campaigns issued tough-on-Iran statements in the wake of a report alleging that negotiators allowed Iran secret loopholes in the nuclear agreement. The Institute for Science and International Affairs, a think tank founded by a former United Nations nuclear weapons inspector, David Albright, said in a report released this week that Iran complied with most of the sanctions relief for the nuclear rollback deal when it was implemented in January. However, the report also said there were a n...
(JTA)-A rocket that was scheduled to launch an Israeli communications satellite into space exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The unmanned SpaceX rocket reportedly was in the midst of routine fueling test for Saturday's scheduled launch when it exploded on Thursday morning. The explosion was felt throughout the NASA facility and for several miles around, The Associated Press reported. Dark smoke could be seen hanging in the sky over the blast site. SpaceX is a private...
In the wake of expanding East African-Israeli relations, African nations often reach out to Israel for know-how on a range of topics: water conservation, energy, agricultural productivity, counter-terrorism; and now business negotiation. Although it may seem like the beginning of a tasteless joke about Jews and negotiation tactics, this work is anything but a joke. DLA Piper is one of the largest law firms in the world, a title that comes with big responsibilities. They take pro-bono work particularly seriously and have worked on dozens of...
The refugee crisis, escalating terrorism and dissatisfaction with the political elite are blamed for the current rise of Europe's far-right political parties. Such a revival has not been seen since World War II. What's uniting the parties is an "imagined Muslim enemy in Europe," and a desire to support and connect with Israel, according to Farid Hafez, a sociology and political science professor at Austria's Salzburg University. The ideology of Europe's far-right parties is rooted in several...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Israel and Turkey ought to be friends, geopolitically speaking. As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put it in January: "Israel needs a country like Turkey in this region. We, too, should admit that we need a country like Israel." But the regional powers often can't seem to make it work. In 2010, Turkey cut ties with Israel over its deadly military raid of the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara flotilla. And this week, days after the Turkish parliament ratified a reconciliation agreeme...
(JTA)-When Vladimir Putin grabbed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the Russian president claimed it was to protect minorities from anti-Semitic fascists whom Putin maintained were behind the revolution that year that ousted his ally in Kiev, former President Viktor Yanukovych. But a physicist named Josef Zissels, who heads one of the groups representing Ukraine's fractured Jewish community of 350,000, wasn't buying it. In hundreds of media briefings and interviews, Zissels called the revolution "an...
2 dead, 5 missing in collapse of Tel Aviv construction site JERUSALEM (JTA)—At least two construction workers are dead and five reportedly are missing following the collapse of a tiered parking structure under construction in Tel Aviv on Monday morning. Two workers who had been trapped under the rubble for hours were pulled out early Monday evening. The search-and-rescue effort for the missing workers, who are believed to be trapped, was expected to last through the night, The Times of Israel reported. At least 24 workers, Israelis and P...
Russia's unprecedented move last week of dispatching warplanes to bomb targets in Syria through an Iranian airbase may have Israeli officials worried. The move shows growing cooperation between Russia and Iran, Israel's biggest foe in the Middle East in recent years, and a regime that, like Russia, has been working to maintain the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On Aug. 22, Russian and Iranian officials announced that Russia's use of the Iranian base has ended. Iran's Foreign Ministry...
PARIS (JTA)-Twenty-five years after he graduated from a public high school in the French capital, Stephane Tayar recalls favorably his time in one of the world's most thorough education systems. As for many other French Jews his age, the state-subsidized upbringing has worked out well for Tayar, a 43-year-old communications and computers specialist. Eloquent but down to earth, he seems as comfortable discussing the complexities of French society as he is adept at fighting-curses, threats and...
By Andrew Tobin JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli security forces shut down six illegal weapons manufacturing factories in the West Bank in what the army said was the biggest such operation of an ongoing crackdown. The raids conducted jointly by the Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet security service and Israel Police took place last Monday night in Bethlehem and Hebron. “Last night, after research and analysis, we decided to clamp down on several warehouses and factories that manufacture guns and arms,” a senior army officer told JTA and other journ...
For the first time, the U.S. State Department has explicitly accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of promoting anti-Semitism, a signal Jewish groups are hoping will lead to change in U.S. policy. According to a newly released State Department annual report on international religious freedom, official PA media "carried religiously intolerant material," citing Palestinian television programs that called Jews "evil" or "denied a historical Jewish presence in Jerusalem." Previously, U.S....
JERUSALEM (JTA)-In this case, the sins of the son are the sins of the father. Israel's Supreme Rabbinical Court this month sentenced a haredi Orthodox man to 30 days in jail for pressuring his son to withhold a divorce from his wife for more than a decade. By upholding a lower rabbinical court decision, the high court gave its blessing to an unprecedented approach to freeing women from unwanted marriages. The Orthodox rabbis who adjudicate divorce in Israel-all of whom are men-have come under...
By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA)-Pro-Israel activists in the Miami area plan to protest a Florida state senator active in the Black Lives Matter movement who visited the West Bank as the guest of a group that backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Organizers of the protest against Dwight Bullard said they object to the groups and people he met while visiting the region in May under the aegis of a Miami-based civil rights group, Dream Defenders. His delegation met with a founder of...
Report: Sheldon Adelson meets with Donald Trump, suggests he demonstrate humility (JTA)—Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson told Donald Trump in a private meeting that the Republican presidential candidate must demonstrate a measure of humility, The New York Times reported. Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate, also told Trump in the meeting last week in Adelson’s suite at the St. Regis Hotel in New York that he was committed to his presidential campaign. The newspaper cited five unnamed Republicans briefed on the meeting who were not aut...
TEL AVIV-A group of 233 Olim (new immigrants) landed in Tel Aviv on an El Al Boeing 777 chartered by Nefesh B'Nefesh to begin their new lives in Israel, including 75 Lone Soldiers who will become Israeli citizens and volunteer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Two of the Lone Soldiers are locals-Roni Weil, daughter of Aaron and Sharon Weil of Maitland, and Ben Brent, son of Rene Brent of Lake Mary and David Brent of Israel. The flight was facilitated in cooperation with Israel's Ministry of...
Israeli water experts believe by 2050, almost half of the world's population will live in countries with a chronic water shortage. What's causing the shortfall is population growth, which leads to a greater demand for food, increased pollution and climate instability, according to Prof. Noam Weisbrod, director of the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR) in the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In Israel's Negev Desert, which has long...
Two years after the fighting between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, about 70,000 Palestinians have not returned to their homes that were damaged in the fighting. Just 200 homes have been completely rebuilt and the families have returned. “We ask the international community to increase their donations and the countries who pledged billions to respect their pledge,” Adnan Abu Husna, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, told The Media Line. “The people of Gaza should not get to the point...
(JTA)—Only last year, Spain was still the undisputed bastion for the BDS movement in Europe. Some 50 Spanish municipalities had passed resolutions in recent years endorsing BDS—an acronym for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel—more than in any other European country. Relying on backing from a strong far left, the branches of Spain’s BDS movement were able to exert considerable pressure. Last August, BDS activists pressured the organizers of a reggae festival near Barcelona to demand that the American-Jewish singer...
Lou Pearlman, who formed Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, dies in prison (JTA)—Lou Pearlman, who formed and managed the boy bands Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, died while serving a 25-year prison sentence for a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Pearlman, who suffered a stroke in prison in 2010, died last Friday in the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas. He was 62. He had been projected to be released in 2029 after pleading guilty in 2008 to charges that included conspiracy and money laundering. In the 1990s, Pearlman started Trans C...
By Katie Beiter The Media Line A three-pronged approach to fighting skin cancer in Israel appears to be showing success. Over the past five years, an aggressive campaign predicated upon awareness, identification and research has apparently been responsible for significantly lower skin cancer rates in the Jewish state. Under the direction of the Israel Cancer Association, newly created skin care apps such as “DermaCompare” and the development of immunotherapy drugs like Keytruda, the campaign appears to have made noticeable headway in fig...
(JNS.org)—Turkey and Israel are reportedly expected to sign a reconciliation deal before September, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Israel is cooperating with Arab nations, Foreign Ministry Director says Israeli diplomacy with Africa continues, Togolese president visits Israel “I think we will finalize the issue before parliament’s recess. Israel has met our terms, paving the way to normalize ties. Therefore, we must do this as soon as possible,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Wednesday. Conditi...
(JNS.org) The International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem and Israel's Foreign Ministry held a seminar on the 1994 Rwanda genocide, whose anniversary took place earlier this week. Several Rwandan genocide survivors were part of delegations attending the seminar. In 1994 members of Rwanda's majority ethnic Hutu government killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 ethnic Tutsi Rwandans over a period of three months. The seminar at Yad Vashem continues a partnership founded in 2005, when the museum first hosted survivors of the Rwandan g...
Yitzhak Rabin’s son warns Donald Trump: Same kind of ‘incitement’ spurred murder of my father (JTA)—The son of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Donald Trump’s “ugly” campaign rhetoric is threatening American democracy and creating an atmosphere similar to the one in Israel leading up to his father’s assassination. In a USA Today op-ed on Sunday, Yuval Rabin wrote that the recent call by Trump to “Second Amendment people” is the same kind of “incitement” that “led to the murder” of his father in 1995. “More than one commentator...
