Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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As world leaders converged on New York City for the 69th United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to remind them that the threats Israel faces today could be their own problems tomorrow. "Israel is fighting a fanaticism today that your countries might be facing tomorrow," Netanyahu said. In a wide-ranging speech to the 193-member world body that included not only a focus on Islamic terrorism but also on a nuclear Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—For approximately a half hour at the beginning of her El Al Israel Airlines flight last week from New York to Tel Aviv, Elana Sztokman watched as the haredi Orthodox man seated next to her rushed up and down the aisle searching for someone willing to switch seats so he wouldn’t have to sit beside her. On the same route several hours later, another El Al flight was delayed as haredi men stood in the aisles refusing to sit next to women. After takeoff, the men resumed their protest until other seats were found for them. A pas...
West Bank—Pharmacist Raed Qubbaj was busy with a customer when a man working with the Palestinian Preventative Security Forces came into his Ramallah pharmacy and placed him under arrest earlier this month. “He didn’t tell me why and he had no official papers from any court,” the father of three boys told The Media Line. Qubbaj handed over his mobile phone and laptop to the man who had a car waiting outside. He agreed to go, thinking it was all a mistake, and he would be back in a few hours. It was only after he was given a medical exam an...
Wadi Nis, West Bank – As Dr. Yitzchak Glick drives through the steep streets of this West Bank village of some 1000 residents, he is repeatedly stopped by Palestinians residents. Some just want to say hello and shake his hand. Others ask him to stop in and check on a family member. Many of the Palestinians live in large homes, faced with white Jerusalem limestone that is quarried here and sold abroad. But some of the residents like Hosam, a father of six who asked not to give his last name, are poor. In his home, two adults and six children l...
In his office, next to photos of his wife and family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps a portrait of Theodor Herzl. "He was a prophet. A modern prophet," Netanyahu says, further naming Zionist pioneer Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Israel's first prime minister David Ben-Gurion, and Likud party founder and former prime minister Menachem Begin as equally important Zionist leaders. In an interview with Israel Hayom ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Netanyahu applies those past leaders' experiences to the...
Palestinian Arabs have concentrated many of their terrorist attacks on Jews in Jerusalem, hoping to win the city by an onslaught of suicide bombers who seek to make life in the City of Peace unbearable. But this is not a new tactic. Arab strategy to turn Jerusalem into a battleground began in 1920. Unfortunately, Arab leaders often turn to violence to gain what they were unable to achieve at the negotiating table. When talks broke down at Camp David in 2000, Palestinian Arab leaders unleashed the al-Aqsa Intifada, which amounted to a...
Israeli tourist jailed, fined for flying drone in Paris JERUSALEM (JTA)—An Israeli tourist was arrested and jailed for flying a drone over Paris landmarks. The man, 24, was arrested Oct. 1 in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral, where the drone, equipped with a professional mounted camera, was flying, the French news agency AFP reported. The drone also had flown over the historic Hotel Dieu hospital and a police station. After spending the night in jail, he was levied a nearly $650 fine for “operating an aircraft non-compliant with safety law...
A positive article in the Palestinian Authority’s official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, (Sept. 21, 2014), lauded Israel and Israeli employers of Palestinians for their positive employment ethics towards their Palestinian workers. At the same time, the article condemned Palestinian employers for taking advantage of their workers. The article explains that Palestinian workers get their full rights when employed by Israelis directly and that the only time they do not get their full rights is when there is a Palestinian middleman: “The only cas...
NEW YORK (JTA) – President Obama devoted the bulk of his U.N. speech to the fight against violent Islamic extremism and hardly mentioned Iran's nuclear program. In his address last year to the General Assembly, Obama spent a great deal of time talking about Tehran's nuclear pursuit, describing it as one of two major focus areas for American diplomatic efforts (the other was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). On Wednesday, he devoted just four lines to Iran. "America is pursuing a diplomatic reso...
White House official: Nuclear deal could portend Iran ties WASHINGTON (JTA)—A top Obama administration official said that a nuclear deal with Iran could start the way toward a possible resumption of ties. “A nuclear agreement could begin a multi-generational process that could lead to a new relationship between our countries,” Philip Gordon, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, said in a speech Saturday to the National Iranian American Council. “Iran could begin to reduce tensions with its neighbors and return to its rightfu...
Following Israel's Operation Protective Edge this summer, Hamas continues to control the Gaza Strip and openly considers any truce with Israel as a time to re-arm for the next conflict. Across Israel's northern border, Hezbollah has been fighting to preserve the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but still poses a danger to the Jewish state. Meanwhile, the Islamic State has exploded across Iraq and Syria in a spectacle of unprecedented brutality that could one day also knock on...
It was bashert – meant to be – that fateful day when Lori and Moshe Erlich happened upon Rabbi Michael Boyden and his wife as they were taking a walk in their hometown, Hod Hasharon, Israel. Earlier that day, Lori read an article about a synagogue in Raanana the rabbi had raised money to build in memory of his son only to have it snatched from his grasp at the last moment. At that time, Lori promised him if they reached their dream of having a permanent home for a Reform/Conservative con...
TORONTO (JTA)-On the fourth floor of the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights, visitors will find a gallery called "Examining the Holocaust," which is devoted entirely to the story and lessons of the Shoah. On the same floor, in a smaller, adjacent space, a gallery called "Breaking the Silence" examines a cluster of five genocides officially recognized by the Canadian government: the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia; the Armenian and Rwandan genocides; the Holodomor, or the starvation of millions...
NEW YORK (JTA)-The circus is coming to town. No, there won't be marching elephants, lion tamers or motorcycles jumping through rings of fire. But there may be wolves in sheep's clothing, tightrope walking and motorcades blocking traffic. We're talking, of course, about the United Nations General Assembly, held every September at U.N. headquarters in midtown Manhattan. It's an opportunity for presidents and prime ministers to fly into the Big Apple, get their 15 minutes in front of a global...
Posters telling women where to walk removed from haredi London neighborhood (JTA)—Posters in English and Yiddish telling women which side of the road they can walk on were removed from a haredi Orthodox neighborhood in London. “Women should please walk along this side of the road only,” read the signs posted in the Stamford Hill area of north London, the Jewish Chronicle reported. The Hackney Council, the local government body, ordered the signs taken down following complaints from residents. They reportedly were removed last Friday. The Shomr...
B’nai B’rith is troubled that a gathering in Washington, D.C., to support Christians persecuted by radical Islamists has been overshadowed by a display of animosity toward Israel. During the “In Defense of Christians” (IDC) summit, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was shouted down when he spoke positively about Israel. During a speech at an evening gala, Cruz noted that some urge differentiating between “ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas”—and rejected this approach, asserting, “Hate is hate, and murder is murder.” He continued: “Christians have...
NEW YORK – Taglit-Birthright Israel, the organization responsible for sending over 400,000 young Jewish adults on a free 10-day trip to Israel to learn about their heritage, will launch its improved application portal for its 2014/2015 Winter season. Registration opened Tues., Sept. 9. The new registration process will provide an improved user-friendly experience, allowing applicants to select the exact date of their national, niche, campus or community trip and plan according to their schedules. “We are thrilled to kick off the winter sea...
In one of Steven Sotloff's final reports for The Media Line, dated July 30, 2014, he wrote: "As the international media is fixated on the struggle between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood, few reporters are focusing on Syria. But a spate of kidnappings of foreign journalists in Syria has made the country a mini-Iraq that few want to venture into. 'It's dangerous and getting worse by the day,' says a correspondent for a major Western publication. If no one is asking for articles, why...
NEW YORK-From the north to the south, the people of Israel are praising Jewish National Fund (JNF) donors for the emergency aid delivered to them during the recent crisis. When Operation Protective Edge went into effect in early July, JNF immediately went to work internally and with numerous partners in Israel to deliver programs, provisions and services for thousands of men, women and children in facilities, shelters and fire stations, and provided trips and field programs to the north for...
The following letter was written by the mother of Daniel Tregerman, the 4-year-old killed by mortar shell fired from Gaza, to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. She gave permission for the letter to be publicized so that others would know the complete story of what happened and what the past was like between Gazan civilians and Israelis who live in nearby kibbutzim. Dear Sir, My name is Gila, I am an Israeli citizen, and I am a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the border with Gaza. A week...
(JTA) – All is not well in the U.S.-Israel relationship. Somehow, the 50 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas frayed ties between Washington and Jerusalem. How did this happen? In part, the contretemps stems from the divergent ways that the Israeli and U.S. administrations view the Gaza war. Here's where each side is coming from: In the eyes of the U.S. administration... While Israel's security concerns vis-a-vis Gaza are legitimate, the ferocity of Israel's response against Hamas in G...
BEERSHEBA, Israel (JTA)-Handcuffed to a wooden chair in the middle of the night, Rafat Awaysha still wasn't sure what crime he had committed. He had announced a demonstration against the war in Gaza in a July 11 Facebook post. Soon afterward, he received a call from the police, who came to his dormitory and took him in for questioning. Released after an hour, Awaysha, the head of the Arab-Israeli Balad party student group at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, thought the ordeal was over. But...
The Zionist Organization of America expresses “appall” at the Gaza resolution under UN Security Council consideration—and especially at the US for apparently agreeing to it. The proposed ceasefire resolution does not specifically condemn Hamas by name, but rather equates Hamas terrorism and the Israeli response to it. The resolution wording condemns “all violence and hostilities directed against civilians, as well as indiscriminate attacks resulting in civilian casualties, and all acts of terrorism.” No differentiation is made between t...
OR YEHUDA, Israel (JTA) -- Something that looks like a can of soda could be Israel's high-tech answer to the network of tunnels that Hamas has created under the Gaza border. A sensor known as a geophone can detect underground movement based on the sound generated by the movement, the Israeli defense firm manufacturing the device says. The firm, Elpam Electronics, says the geophone is capable of finding the location of a person crawling as far down as 32 feet. Israel has grappled with the danger...
(JTA)—Most of the artists participating in a major Brazilian art event protested funding for the show from the Israeli government. Sixty-one of nearly 70 artists in the 31st Sao Paulo Biennial have signed an open letter calling on the event’s board to return the funds from Israel due to its recent Gaza operation. Three Israeli artists are participating in the biennial, which led to funding from the Israeli consulate. The logo of the Israeli consulate in Sao Paulo is featured on the event’s publicity materials alongside other supporters, inclu...
