Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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JERUSALEM (JTA)—In the wake of the drowning death of hundreds of migrants from Libya trying to reach Italy, an Israeli government minister justified his country’s building of a fence to keep out migrants. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz in a post Monday on his Facebook page, called the deaths a “tragedy that shocks all humanity,” then added, “Look how right was the government’s policy to build a fence on the border with Gaza that blocks the way of migrant workers from Africa from entering Israel.” Israel in 2012 built a fence on its...
Witnesses attacked as neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party trial opens (JTA)—Witnesses in the trial of Golden Dawn party leaders reportedly were attacked outside the courthouse by supporters of the Greek neo-Nazi party. The trial convened Monday in the high-security Korydallos prison outside Athens, where the party leaders are being held, but was adjourned until May 7 amid reports of the attacks, the Kathimerini newspaper reported. Sixty-nine leaders and activists, including Golden Dawn head Nikolaos Michaloliakos and several lawmakers, are charged with...
By (JTA)-Israel and the Obama administration have stepped up their war of words over the framework agreement that aims to limit Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for a gradual rollback of sanctions. President Barack Obama made his most detailed effort yet to persuade skeptics of the accord reached last week in Switzerland in a weekend interview with The New York Times, asserting that the deal is the "best bet" to prevent Iran's acquisition of a nuclear weapon and promising to "stand by"...
JNS.org—Criticism by US lawmakers of the Iran nuclear framework deal announced on Thursday is mounting as President Barack Obama faces a possible showdown with Congress over its role reviewing the agreement when it returns from recess on April 14. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) ripped apart the nuclear deal with Iran, arguing that President Obama’s negotiation team was worse than Great Britain’s pre-war Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s attempts to appease Nazi Germany in 1938. “Neville Chamberlain got a lot of more out of Hitler than Wendy She...
White House steps up Iran pitch to Jewish leaders, donors WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Barack Obama will attend two meetings with Jewish leaders in his bid to persuade the Jewish community to back the Iran nuclear deal. Obama and Susan Rice, his national security adviser, will meet Monday with top officials of Jewish organizations, including civil defense groups like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, umbrella groups like the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Federations o...
(JNS.org)-Iran and the P5+1 (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany) world powers have announced that a framework deal on Iran's nuclear program has been reached after marathon talks in Switzerland that blew past the March 31 deadline, setting the stage for a final comprehensive agreement to be reached by June 30. On Twitter, Secretary of State John Kerry described the conclusion of the recent round of talks as a "big day", saying that the European Union, P5+1 and Iran "now have...
By Christine DeSouza "My people perish for lack of knowledge," said Laurie Cardoza-Moore quoting Hosea 4:6 at the beginning of an ACT! For America meeting on March 26. Cardoza-Moore, founder of the nonprofit organization Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, travels the world educating Christians about their biblical responsibility to stand with and for the people of Israel. With a background in broadcasting and film, Cardoza-Moore believes Christians cannot be silent in the face of terrorism, as...
(JTA)—For President Obama, the framework agreement reached last Thursday with Iran is a “historic understanding” that does more to roll back Tehran’s nuclear program than any possible alternative and avoids the risk of a destructive war in the Middle East. But to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it’s the complete opposite: a pact that “threatens the survival of Israel” and would “increase the risks of nuclear proliferation in the region and the risks of a horrific war.” With many of the deal’s details yet to be worked out before t...
In the latest move to press their case using the international community, the “state of Palestine” was officially accepted into the International Criminal Court (ICC) paving the way for the court to bring Israel up on war crimes charges. “Today is a historic day in the struggle for justice, freedom, and peace for our people and all those seeking justice worldwide,” Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said in a statement. We call upon the international community to support the inalienable rights of our people, including our right to self-determinat...
(JTA) —Diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland, have come to an agreement on a framework accord on Iran’s nuclear program. But even with this agreement, it’s merely a way station toward a comprehensive deal that is due by June 30. The six world powers—the United States, Britain, Russia, China, France and Germany—negotiating with Iran managed to reach a final deal, however, Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei still must grant his approval and President Obama will have to overcome opposition in Congress. The deal need not be subject to a congression...
Israel lists its requirements for final nuclear deal with Iran JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel has created a list of requirements it says are needed in a final deal with Iran over its nuclear program. The list was presented Monday by Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, The New York Times reported, to reporters at a hotel in Jerusalem. Steinitz said the modifications to the final agreement, which is scheduled to be finalized by the end of June, will make it more acceptable to Israel. Among the requirements on the lis...
Near the entrance to the city of Ariel in the heart of Samaria lies an Arab strip mall of sorts, where Jews and Palestinians alike can get fruits and vegetables, a car wash, pet supplies, hummus, and falafel. The former mayor of Ariel, Ron Nachman, used to joke that the area is Ariel's "duty-free zone." It's located right on the border of Israeli-controlled and Palestinian-controlled territory, so no one really knows exactly to whom the shop owners pay taxes. Abu Ali, a Palestinian man who owns...
When the champion of the U.S.-Israel alliance sounds the alarm, something about the steadfast allies’ relationship is more contentious than usual. Last week, the staunchly bipartisan American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—which does not frequently issue public statements, let alone criticize a sitting American president—urged the Obama administration to “recommit to improving” U.S.-Israel ties. AIPAC’s March 19 statement came after White House and State Department representatives dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral and burial in Israel of seven children who died in a house fire in Brooklyn. "God Almighty took seven roses," said their father, Gabriel Sassoon, in a eulogy at a Jerusalem cemetery on Monday afternoon, according to Ynet. "He took my children and my future grandchildren, maybe 70 or 80 of them, their smiles. To you, my God, I give my all. My soul, my all. That is how I feel." The mourners at the Givat Shaul Cemetery included close friends...
ADL: Anti-Semitic incidents in U.S. up by 21 percent NEW YORK (JTA)—Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose by 21 percent in 2014, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit of anti-Semitism. The organization counted 912 anti-Semitic incidents last year, up from 751 in 2013, with the period surrounding last summer’s Gaza war seeing a surge of incidents. The tally included 36 cases of assault or other violence, 363 incidents of vandalism, and 513 cases of harassment, threats and events. “2014 was a particularly violent...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-This city's Rabin Square was full of young men wearing large knit kippahs and women in long skirts and long sleeves cheering as right-wing politicians declared their opposition to Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. On Sunday night, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ascended the stage to address the crowd, he needed their votes. On Tuesday he got them. "[A]s long as I am prime minister, and as long as Likud is in government, the nationalist camp is in government," he said...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—At the AIPAC conference, a sea of 16,000 Israel supporters spent their time talking Iran policy amid the swirling controversy over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. To the sidelines fell discussion of the Israeli elections, the peace process and Israeli innovation— as well as another quieter aim of the three-day forum: courting progressives. Sprinkled through the dense program were several well-attended sessions devoted to presenting Israel’s deep connection to progressive values. In plenary session...
After speaking to Congress on March 3 despite the objections of the Obama administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “a prime minister in Israel must be able to stand up even to our closest ally and tell the truth.” In an interview published Friday by Israel Hayom, whose English-language content is distributed exclusively by JNS.org, Netanyahu said his speech about the Iranian nuclear threat was “well worth the cost of confrontation” with President Barack Obama. The White House had opposed the speech on the grounds...
With the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany) approaching a March 24 deadline for a "political framework agreement," Israel's objections to the parameters of the emerging deal have been highly publicized. But lesser known is the growing unease about the negotiations among many leading Arab states. For nations such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, which all have Sunni Muslim-majority populations, Iran-which is...
At odds over Iran stance, Netanyahu tried to nix Mossad briefing for U.S. senators JERUSALEM (JTA)—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly tried to cancel a Mossad briefing for visiting U.S. senators because of the Israeli security agency’s warnings on an Iran sanctions bill. Netanyahu removed the Jan. 19 briefing from the itinerary of six senators visiting Israel, led by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Time magazine reported Saturday. Corker reportedly threatened to abort the trip to Israel to...
The leaders of the eight political parties running in the March 17 Israeli Knesset election participated in their first televised debate on Feb. 26, moderated by anchor Yonit Levi of Israel’s Channel 2 network. Absent from the discussion, however, were current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his most formidable challenger, Zionist Union alliance chairman Isaac Herzog. If Zionist Union wins the most seats in the Knesset (Israel’s legislature) and is able to form a governing coalition, Herzog—whose Labor party merged with Tzipi Livni...
By Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA)-Isaac Herzog paces slowly up and down the stage, one hand in his suit pocket, a slight smile forming through his slender lips. Quietly, his heavy breath audible through the microphone, the center-left candidate for prime minister runs down a detailed a list of policy reforms, almost never changing his tone or raising his voice. Even when he builds toward an early crescendo-telling the crowd "I intend to win"-it sounds more like a policy analysis than a rallying cry....
TEL AVIV (JTA)-The key word in Yair Lapid's political vocabulary might be "but." His Yesh Atid party is not right-wing, he says, but it isn't left-wing either. He wants to withdraw from the West Bank, but disavows both a unilateral pullout and bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He wants Israel to allow civil unions, but would maintain the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate's control over marriage. And on Sunday, he wouldn't directly criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the...
Israeli media say that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress could give him an extra seat or two in Israel’s upcoming election. But with just under two weeks to the poll, any advantage he gained could fade away. “It could have at least a short-term effect on the electorate,” Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israeli relations at Bar Ilan University told The Media Line. “Netanyahu is hoping to bring back voters who have left him for the center parties. But it’s still more than a week and a half before the election, and in Isra...
Charges dropped against Ohio U. anti-divestment protesters (JTA)—Charges were dropped against four Jewish Ohio University students who disrupted a student senate meeting with a protest against divestment from Israel. The charges were dismissed last week following motions filed by lawyers for the students, who were charged with a fourth-degree misdemeanor, for not receiving a speedy trial. Under Ohio law, a speedy trial is 60 days, though extensions are possible. A jury trial had been set to begin in Athens County Municipal Court on Tuesday in t...
