Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(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...
By Sean Savage JNS.org With old alliances being frayed and new threats emerging, making sense of the rapidly changing Middle East is increasingly difficult for even seasoned observers and analysts. Disgruntled by President Barack Obama's foreign policy in the region, some long-time American allies such as Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia have begun openly criticizing the U.S. approach to issues like the Gaza conflict, with some even pivoting towards Russia. At the same time, the civil wars in...
Following the taking of attendance and the reading of the opening chapter of the Koran, some homeroom classes across the West Bank are devoting time to educate students on the importance of supporting local products. A second lesson comes after lunch and recess, when the students line up to return to classrooms. The goal is to get kids to support products made in the West Bank, which include Palestinian-made stationary and school supplies, medicines, and even school uniforms. The Ministry of Education sent out letters to teachers detailing the...
U.S. calls on Israel to reverse land appropriation JERUSALEM (JTA)—The United States called on Israel to cancel the government appropriation of West Bank land in the Etzion bloc, while Israeli ministers praised and panned the decision. “This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, is counterproductive to Israel’s stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians,” an unnamed U.S. government official told Reuters on Monday. “We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision.” The Israel...
Recently, in reaction to the Gaza conflict, George Galloway, a Respect party representative to U.K.'s Parliament announced that the West Yorkshire city of Bradford would be an "Israel-free zone." "We don't want any Israeli goods, we don't want any Israeli services, we don't want any Israeli academics coming to the university or the college, we don't even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford, even if any of them had thought of doing so," Galloway stated. Speaking on behalf of the...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-The United Nations probe into the Gaza conflict hasn't even begun, but Israel already is convinced that it won't end well. In a resolution adopted by a vote of 29-1 with 17 abstentions, the U.N. Human Rights Council moved last month to establish a commission of inquiry "to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." The United States cast the sole vote against. Last week, Israeli Prime...
CHICAGO – Chicago kosher restaurant, MILT’s BBQ for the Perplexed, has donated three ambucycles to the Israeli emergency response organization United Hatzalah in memory of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah, who were murdered earlier this summer. The donated ambucycles were inducted into the United Hatzalah fleet on Tuesday morning, when United Hatzalah volunteers drove the bikes along a symbolic route from the bus stop at which they were abducted in Gush Etzion to the point where the boys’ bodies were uncovered. The donor spoke...
Iran says it shot down Israeli drone near Natanz nuclear facility JERUSALEM (JTA)—Iran claimed that it shot down an Israeli drone near its Natanz uranium enrichment facility. The drone was targeted by a ground-to-air missile before it entered the Natanz site, Iran’s state news agency ISNA reported Sunday. Natanz, Iran’s main uranium enrichment site with more than 10,000 centrifuges, is located southeast of Tehran. “This act demonstrates a new adventurism by the Zionist regime,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said in a statement on its official we...
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A New York Post editorial published Sunday slammed the Obama administration for its recent Israel policy. Headed “Obama deserts an ally in wartime,” the editorial said, “What kind of ally refuses to send you desperately needed weapons when you’re smack in the middle of a war? Apparently, that’s what the Obama folks did with Israel, which is caught up fighting with Hamas. It’s unforgivable.” The editorial was referring to the Obama administration’s recent decision to hold a shipment of Hellfire missil...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-After the missiles have stopped, after the troops have come home, even after most of the wounded are out of the hospital, Israelis will still be feeling the burden of Operation Protective Edge-this time in their pockets. With the recent expiration of a temporary cease-fire, the operation may not be over. (Another temporary cease-fire was put in place starting at midnight Monday.) But through last week, including both direct military expenses and indirect hits to the Israeli...
(JTA)-It is now open season for those who would like a chunk of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's change and think they have a big idea up their sleeves. On Tuesday, the Genesis Prize Foundation announced the launch of the Genesis Generation Challenge, a competition offering 10 awards of $100,000 each to teams that can successfully present innovative projects "guided by Jewish values to address the world's pressing issues," according to a foundation statement. Teams must have approximately 10 people...
By Josh Hasten With the withdrawal of ground troops from Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it completed its mission of dismantling a network of terrorist tunnels. But how did Hamas get its hands on materials to build the tunnels in the first place? Lt. Col (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, an expert on the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), explained that some of the materials, including cement and iron, were smuggled into Gaza by Hamas through...
(JTA)—Israeli human rights group B’Tselem is no longer eligible for Israeli national service volunteer placements because it has acted “against the state and its soldiers.” In a letter to B’Tselem, the head of the national service program, which coordinates placements for young Israelis doing national civilian service as an alternative to military service, said he objected to the group’s actions during this summer’s Gaza war, Haaretz reported. B’Tselem’s full name is B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Ter...
(JTA)-Each time he dispatches a car into Lugansk, Rabbi Shalom Gopin readies himself for hours of anxious anticipation. The scene of brutal urban warfare between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists, this eastern Ukrainian city now has no regular power supply, running water or cell phone reception. Mortar rounds can fall without warning. Much of the population, once 450,000, has fled. But despite the risks, Gopin, the city's exiled chief rabbi, has dispatched over a dozen cars to...
Israeli negotiators in Cairo talks told to insist on nation’s security needs JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s delegation to the Cairo cease-fire talks has “clear instructions” to “insist on the security needs of the State of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “Only if there is a clear response to our security needs will we agree to reach understandings,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of the regular weekly Cabinet meeting. “If Hamas thinks that it can cover up its military loss with a diplomatic achievement, it is mistaken. If Hamas t...
Jews around the world were inspired last month when Arab-Israeli teenager Mohammad Zoabi cloaked himself in an Israeli flag and spoke into a bedroom video camera, "I am an Israeli and will remain an Israeli. Israel will remain a Jewish and a democratic country." What few realized is that within days after the video went viral, Israeli police arrested three men in his own family for plotting to cause him harm in retaliation for the piece. His cousin, Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi, called her...
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-A few hours before he departed Amsterdam for Australia on July 17, Ithamar Avnon was praying for peace with his parents at their home in the Netherlands. That evening, pro-Russian separatists shot down Avnon's flight, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew. Avnon, 26, was the sole Israeli national on board. The son of a Dutchwoman and an Israeli who became a Christian evangelist, Avnon loved peace because of how well he and his...
Washington Jewish Week A new Pew Research Center poll showing Republicans as more sympathetic to Israel than Democrats has left Jewish Democratic leaders searching for an explanation of the partisan gap. Conducted from July 8-14, the week Israel began its air operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip but before its ground invasion, the poll asked 1,805 respondents, “In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side do you sympathize with more—Israel or the Palestinians?” Possible answers were: Israel, Palestinians, both, neith...
RAMLE, Israel (JTA)-In her living room in the Israeli town of Ramle, Sarah says she wants a peaceful life. At 79, she deserves one. A Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, Sarah was sent to a Nazi concentration camp in Serbia as a child, arriving in Israel at age 17. Her entire family perished in the Holocaust. Now she watches from her armchair as her family is threatened once again. Sarah-not her real name-is now a Muslim, and her daughter lives in Gaza City. "The whole city is in ruins," Sarah...
WASHINGTON, DC-With the conflict in Israel in their hearts and on their minds, thousands of evangelical Christians converged on Washington, DC, from July 21-22 to flex their collective muscles for the Jewish state as part of the annual Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit. "Our joy is consistently interrupted by news from Israel. But it is good to be together with loved ones at a sad time. I see the energy more than ever, that we have to speak out and be a voice for Israel," David Brog,...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The dramatic developments in the war between Hamas and Israel have been accompanied by sharp ups and downs in U.S.-Israel relations. On Monday, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, made nice with the U.S. national security adviser, Susan Rice, before an audience of anxious U.S. Jewish leaders. But right before, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly vowed to continue Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, notwithstanding President Obama’s unequivocal demand for a cease-fire. And within a day o...
