Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)-At the sixth BDS National Conference on March 16 in Ramallah, the BDS National Committee presented a comprehensive 2019-2020 strategic plan for the movement, focusing on expanding boycott practices, implementing a strict "anti-normalization" policy with Israel and seeking to lobby key international organizations such as the European Union against Israel. Conference workshops were focused on BDS policies, labor sectors and trade unions, normalization standards and BDS efforts in the...
(JNS)—Several international funding platforms are severing ties with the BDS organization Samidoun after its purported ties to a Palestinian terrorist group. According to an email obtained by JNS from the International Legal Forum, PayPal said it would “thoroughly review” Samidoun’s account, and that it will “take further action as appropriate in this case.” Following similar complaints, Samidoun’s accounts with both Donorbox and Plaid have been removed. Yifa Segal, director of the International Legal Forum, told JNS that Samidoun is clearly af...
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (JTA)-I believe in the Jewish people's right to live in our homeland. That profound belief has no bearing on the rights of others to live here as well. There are Palestinians who live and work in the land of Israel, and while I may seldom agree with the positions of their elected officials, the Palestinians are certainly entitled to live their own lives with the same dignity as anyone else. I also believe in peace, and I deeply wish for peace for all of the Jews and Arabs...
Florida Passover guests left in the lurch when program organizer fails to pay resort or vendors By Josefin Dolsten (JTA)—Guests at a Passover program in Florida faced eviction after it emerged the organizer owed at least $75,000 to the resort, vendors and staff. The A Different Pesach program had promised guests would stay in private villas in Orlando with shared communal spaces, including a synagogue tent, and kosher food for the eight days of Passover. But after hundreds of guests arrived, it emerged that program owner Ben Atkin had not paid...
(JTA)-Two Jewish billionaires have pledged a total of $122 million toward the restoration of Paris' Notre Dame cathedral, which was ravaged in a fire. Lily Safra, a Brazilian philanthropist, said she would give $22 million to fund the restoration efforts of the iconic church, which was badly damaged Monday, Correio 24 Horas reported. And Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the French owner of L'Oreal, pledged another $100 million, according to CBS. The donations account for about 17 percent of the...
By Ariel Ben Solomon (JNS)—The Mideast peace plan soon to be presented by the U.S. administration is likely not going to get very far upon its initial presentation, but it could provide Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump with an opportunity to alter the dynamics of the conflict. Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, told JNS in an exclusive interview that the Palestinian Authority “will definitely reject” the upcoming U.S. backed peace plan, and that past Palestinian behavior does...
(JTA)—Just days before Israel was to hold national elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to annex parts of the West Bank as Israeli territory. “I’m going to extend sovereignty,” he said in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 on Saturday night, adding that “I don’t differentiate between the settlement blocs and isolated settlements.” The campaign promise is a last-minute bid to draw right-wing votes in a tight election race. But what does annexing West Bank settlements mean? How would it affect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks,...
Official US maps now show Golan Heights as part of Israel By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA)—Official U.S. maps now include the Golan Heights as part of Israel. Jason Greenblatt, the top White House Middle East peace negotiator, posted a map Tuesday on his Twitter feed. “Welcome to the newest addition of our international maps system after @POTUS issued a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Greenblatt said. President Donald Trump in March recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the strategic plateau. Israel capture...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s election on Tuesday was contentious, historic, crazy—and somewhat predictable. Benjamin Netanyahu seems poised to become the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, with the help of his strengthened right-wing parliamentary bloc. But that didn’t mean the results didn’t bring some surprises. Here are the big takeaways. 1. Two winners? No Israeli party had ever garnered more than a million votes in an election, but two did on Tuesday: Netanyahu’s Likud Party, and former Israeli military chief of staff Benny G...
(JTA)-Benjamin Netanyahu appears likely to win a fifth term as Israel's prime minister as right-wing parties apparently have maintained their majority in the nationwide elections held Tuesday. With more than 95 percent of the vote counted, Netanyahu's Likud party and the opposition Blue and White party are virtually tied with more than 1 million votes apiece. According to Israeli news websites, each party is likely to win 35 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament. Despite the tie, Netanyah...
The Israeli SpaceIL spacecraft Beresheet-Hebrew for Genesis-is on the moon, but not in the way that was hoped. Beresheet snapped its first "selfie," with the help of NASA, as it was landing, 22 kilometers (13.67 miles) from the surface. Then it was over. Apparently it crashed on the moon's surface after traveling 47 days and 6.5 million kilometers (4,038,912.75 miles) through space. In the last few moments before it was to land, communication was lost, then recovered. Then the main engine failed...
(JTA)—In a reversal of a 2018 policy announcement, Airbnb will not remove West Bank settlement listings from its website. The policy change came after two federal court settlements Monday between the vacation rental company and two groups of American Jewish plaintiffs who had sued the company. One was organized by Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center, a pro-Israel law organization, and the other was represented by lawyers Marc Zell and David Schultz. A copy of the Shurat Hadin settlement obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency says that Airbnb w...
YEHUD, Israel—Preliminary data supplied by the engineering teams of SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries suggests a technical glitch in one of Beresheet’s components triggered the chain of events yesterday that caused the main engine of the spacecraft to malfunction. Without the main engine working properly, it was impossible to stop Beresheet’s velocity. Beresheet overcame the issue by restarting the engine. However, by that time, its velocity was too high to slow down and the landing could not be completed as planned. Preliminary techn...
(JTA)-After the smoke clears from this contentious Israeli election, which amounted to a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tenure, it appears that Netanyahu will again be asked by Israeli President Rivlin to form the next government. How did he win again? As Israel's former U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren said, "Our economy is excellent, our foreign relations were never better, and we're secure... we know him, the world knows him-even our enemies know him." Unlike American voters,...
Israel approves thousands of new West Bank housing units By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA)—A Defense Ministry committee approved plans for the construction of at least 3,659 new housing units in the West Bank. It is the largest group of West Bank housing units advanced since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. The Trump administration is expected to roll out an Israel-Palestinian peace plan after the Israeli elections. Some 73 percent of the units, or 2,656, are in settlements that Israel likely will have to evacuate under a perman...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Trump administration officials have been silent and notably leak-free about what exactly is in the Middle East peace plan that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is shaping-until now. In speeches to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, it became clear that the plan will likely not accommodate a Palestinian state, or at least the sovereignty that attaches to statehood. David Friedman, Trump's ambassador to Israel and one of three members of the peace team, in his AIPAC...
(JNS)—U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt blasted the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations for aiding and abetting the Palestinian financial payments towards terrorists and their families. In a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday, instigated by Indonesia and Kuwait, Greenblatt defended Israel’s choice last month to reduce Palestinian tax revenues due to the P.A.’s “pay to slay” initiative, which has been a primary obstacle in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, sources told The Washington Free Beac...
Maxwell House is offering a ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Haggadah By JTA staff (JTA)—Real life tradition and television nostalgia collide in a collaboration between the venerable Maxwell House Haggadah and the hit Amazon series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The coffee company is offering a limited edition version of its Haggadah featuring illustrations and other shtick based on the show about an aspiring Jewish comedian and her extended family of Jewish relatives in late 1950s New York. The “Maisel” Haggadah is a throwback to an earlier edition of th...
The Israeli SpaceIL spacecraft Beresheet - Hebrew for Genesis - is on the moon, but not in the way that was hoped. Beresheet snapped its first "selfie," with the help of NASA, as it was landing, 22 kilometers (13.67 miles) from the surface. Then it was over. Apparently it crashed on the moon's surface after traveling 47 days and 6.5 million kilometers (4,038,912.75 miles) through space. In the last few moments before it was to land, communication was lost, then recovered. Then the main engine...
(JTA) - Benjamin Netanyahu appears likely to win a fifth term as Israel's prime minister as right-wing parties apparently have maintained their majority in the nationwide elections held Tuesday. With more than 95 percent of the vote counted, Netanyahu's Likud party and the opposition Blue and White party are virtually tied with more than 1 million votes apiece. According to Israeli news websites, each party is likely to win 35 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament. Despite the tie,...
(JNS)-The formal recognition of Israel's sovereignty in the Golan Heights by the United States could not have come on a more sobering day for Israelis. As rockets were being launched deep into the central Israel by the terror group Hamas in Gaza, the importance of the Golan Heights for Israel's security was on full display. In his remarks at the formal signing of the presidential proclamation at the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Donald Trump that the...
(JNS)—The Hamas rocket that shattered a village home in the Sharon district of central Israel, north of Tel Aviv early on morning of March 25, is an attack that for Israeli leadership represents a step too far. Eleven days after Hamas fired two rockets in the direction of Tel Aviv—in what it claimed was “an accidental” maintenance error—this time, it appears as if the organization’s addiction to gambling and upping the ante to extract concessions from Israel has led it to commit a serious mistake, one that will come with punishing repercussio...
(JNS)—Russia, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iraq criticized the United States for recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, following a ceremony attended by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. The ceremony featured the signing of an official proclamation, and was also attended by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The pen Trump used to sign the declaration was handed to Netanyahu as a gift for the Israeli people. “In a blatant attack on the sov...
(JTA)-President Donald Trump recently signed a proclamation recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Here's what you need to know about the Golan Heights, the 52-year argument over the plateau and why Trump's proclamation is a big deal for Israel's upcoming election. What is the Golan Heights? The Golan Heights is a territory in Israel's northeast corner, on the Syrian border. It's rural, mountainous and mostly empty. Fewer than 50,000 people live there-less than 1 percent of...
(JNS)—The Young Progressives of America at Brooklyn College and the Brooklyn College Islamic Society & Muslim Women’s Educational Initiative held a vigil on Friday, memorializing the 50 Muslim worshippers murdered in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15 with students chanting terrorist slogans. The Instagram account of the Brooklyn College Student Union clearly displays students chanting, “Long Live the Intifada!” Additionally, an unidentified student accurately mentioned that there were six Palestinians who were killed in the shootin...
