Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 432 - 456 of 2213
JERUSALEM (JTA)-As our train hurtled through the tunnel-my ears popping on the descent-and then burst out into sunlight bathing a landscape of fields and rocky hills, I finally let myself feel impressed. Along with the entire population of central Israel, I've spent years anticipating the high-speed train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which became (mostly) operational in September. When it's fully online, the trip between the cities is supposed to take 28 minutes. That would be a game-changer. Fou... Full story
(JNS)-A bipartisan delegation of incoming members of Congress returned to the United States on Friday following a five-day visit to Israel. Reps.-elect Denver Riggleman (R-Va.), Elaine Luria (D-Va.), David Trone (D-Md.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Susie Lee (D-Nev.), participated on a trip organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's American Israel Education Fund to learn about the U.S.-Israel relationship. The incoming congressional members met with Israeli Prime Minister... Full story
Israel arrests 100 Palestinians in crackdown By Sam Sokol JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli forces arrested over 100 Palestinians over the past weekend as part of an anti-terror crackdown launched in the wake of last week’s uptick in terror activity in the West Bank. “There were 100 arrests over the weekend, and another 36 yesterday,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced during a visit to the Giva’at Asaf settlement on Tuesday, where two members of the IDF’s haredi Orthodox Netzach Yehuda battalion were recently shot to death by a Palestinian... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-"Yosef! Yosef!" wailed Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav, calling out the name of his stepson lying covered in a shroud on the marble slab before him. "You were righteous. I didn't want to believe it. Yoåu were all heart, completely pure, a holy and wonderful boy." As he broke down in tears, the grieving father was joined by the sobs of those in the crowd, which included a mix of Orthodox Jews-haredi and religious Zionist-as well as secular mourners. Many were in uniform, bearing the unit... Full story
The Zionist Organization of America has condemned the failure of the United Nations to condemn the terrorist actions of Hamas, the Palestinian Arab terrorist organization that has not only murdered over 1,000 Israeli civilians in scores of suicide bombings and hundreds of other attacks, but also calls in its Covenant for the destruction of Israel and the global murder of Jews. A recent U.S.-sponsored resolution in the U.N. General Assembly mustered a clear majority in support of condemning the genocidally-inclined Hamas for “repeatedly f... Full story
(CAMERA via JNS)—CAMERA’s Israel office prompted correction on Monday of a National Geographic article on the preservation of biblical archeological texts that contained an historical reference to disputed West Bank land. As first noted yesterday on the Elder of Ziyon blog, an article in December print edition of National Geographic erroneously reported that the disputed territories had at one point prior to the Oslo Accords been under Palestinian control (“The search for sacred texts”): In 1993, after signing the Oslo Accords, which provided a... Full story
The phrase, “tip of the iceberg“ references the fact that there’s much more beneath the surface of the water where an iceberg exists that is greater a threat than what is visible above the water. Today in the Middle East we need to coin a new phrase that references the exact opposite: that which is beneath the surface is just a small representation of a much more dangerous threat above the surface. This week, Israel revealed the presence of terror tunnels coming across the border from Lebanon in... Full story
AMSTERDAM (JTA)—The last time that a stranger directed an anti-Semitic insult at me, I was carrying supplies for my son’s birthday party. It was on a Sunday afternoon on Dam Square. Carrying Star of David party decorations in a see-through bag, I paused to snap some pictures on my cellphone of an anti-Israel rally. I was busy sending them to a friend who had inquired about such events in the Netherlands when a bearded man sporting a Moroccan accent said loudly in my direction: “Cancer Jew. You’re all made up, you’re fake. You’re fake dogs.... Full story
Evelyn Berezin, who built word processor, dies at 93 By Andrew Silow-Carroll (JTA)—Evelyn Berezin, a Bronx-born daughter of Jewish immigrants from Russia who built and marketed the first computerized word processor, died Saturday in Manhattan. She was 93. A founder in 1969 of the Long Island-based Redactron Corp., Berezin created the Data Secretary, a processor-enhanced typewriter that jump-started a market later to be dominated by IBM and brands like Osborne, Wang, Tandy and Kaypro. She sold the company to the Burroughs Corp. in 1976 and w... Full story
(JNS)-The United Nations rejected a resolution on Thursday that required a two-thirds majority to pass condemning the terrorist group Hamas for launching rockets from Gaza into Israel in addition to its infrastructure such as building tunnels to infiltrate and attack the Jewish state. The final vote was 87 in favor, 57 against, 33 abstentions. Although the vote was expected to pass through a simple majority, Kuwait proposed a motion to require a two-thirds majority to pass the resolution,... Full story
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)-Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate, his Israeli-born wife, Miriam, and Haim Saban, the Israeli-American entertainment mogul, entered the deck of the pool complex at the Diplomat Hotel here on Saturday night and chose a table to sit around and well, schmooze. Never mind the frantic security detail that scrambled to find ropes and stanchions to create a cordon and to signal to other pool-goers that this bit of territory was occupied, thank you very much. Saban and Miriam... Full story
(JNS)-As the Israel Defense Forces ploughs ahead with an operation to expose and destroy a network of Hezbollah tunnels snaking their way into northern Israel from Lebanon, the military must also be prepared for the risk of a sudden escalation with the powerful Shi'ite terrorist organization, a former senior defense official told JNS. Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, who has served in the past as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's National Security Adviser, said that the operation underway to... Full story
(JNS)-Israel had much to tout at the World Travel Market tourism fair in London last week-namely, its best tourism year yet. October proved to be a record-breaker, thanks to almost 500,000 tourists injecting $676.3 million into the economy. It helped that Israel has increased its marketing campaigns, and that this year celebrated the country's 70th anniversary. At the fair itself, it may have seemed surprising that Israel's pavilion was situated in the Europe section, as opposed to being next... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—For the first time, Israelis said the main point of conflict in their society is between left and right and not between Jews and Arabs. That’s what an annual assessment by the Israel Democracy Institute found in its annual survey. Meanwhile, nearly half of Israelis again said they believe their democracy is in “grave danger.” In the survey of 1,041 Jewish and Arab respondents, some 36 percent held the view that tension between the left and right is the main point of contention in society, with 28 percent saying it is the con... Full story
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)—Vice President Mike Pence said the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel has “no place” in the U.S. market, and cited Airbnb’s delisting of West Bank Jewish settlements as an example of the movement. “In the wake of Airbnb’s decision to ban Jewish homes in Jerusalem and the West Bank, we made it clear, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is wrong and it has no place in the free enterprise of the United States of America,” Pence said at the annual conference of the Israeli American Coun... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Airbnb will remove listings of rooms and homes for rent in West Bank Jewish settlements, the company announced Monday. The approximately 200 listings “would be removed in the coming days,” the company said. Airbnb said in a statement that it consulted with experts to learn about the historical disputes in the region in order to make a decision about whether it should be doing business in “the occupied territories.” The statement did not say which experts it consulted. The company arrived at a framework for evaluating how to tr... Full story
(Israel21c via JNS)—Israeli NGO, IsraAID, is sending an emergency response team to California to help communities affected by the unprecedented fires that have killed 80 and destroyed more than 13,000 homes and buildings. Some 1,200 people are still listed as missing. The two blazes broke out 10 days ago in both Northern and Southern California, and quickly spiraled out of control. The Camp Fire, which wiped out the town of Paradise in Butte County (population 27,000), is already the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history, t... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-I was watching late night network television on Saturday night-that's not terribly exciting here-when I was slammed with a string of ads that made me feel like I was back in America. The ads were in practically shouted Hebrew, but I could discern the same two English words in each: Black Friday (You have to say it with a Hebrew accent though, kind of like Blek Fchidey.) Clothing, electronics, home decor-all the ads were pushing Black Friday sales. Nor did the Black Friday assault... Full story
With the rise of nationalist sentiment in many parts of Europe, Jewish communities here are facing renewed threats and challenges. Against a backdrop of rising concern about the political climate in Eastern Europe, Warsaw’s Reform Rabbi Dr. Walter Rothschild will lead an international group of travelers on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland this coming spring, culminating in the March of the Living on May 2, 2019. Established in 1988, the annual March of the Living is a symbolic walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust R... Full story
Man tries to run down Jews leaving Los Angeles synagogue (JTA)—Los Angeles police arrested a man who allegedly attempted to run over two people outside of an area synagogue. Police are investigating Friday night’s incident as a possible hate crime, the NBC Los Angeles affiliate reported. A security camera video shows the driver trying to run down the two men leaving the Bais Yehuda Shul, and then reversing and trying to hit them again, CBS LA reported. The victims wore clothing typically worn by Orthodox Jews on Shabbat. The driver also rep... Full story
(JNS)-Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman abruptly resigned his post and removed his Yisrael Beytenu Party from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition less than a day after Israel reportedly agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas. During the announcement at a meeting of the Yisrael Beytenu Knesset faction on Wednesday, Lieberman also called on Netanyahu to call early elections and not to "paralyze the country in the long term." "I have tried to remain a faithful member... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Palestinian terror groups in Gaza reportedly have agreed to commit to a cease-fire of hostilities that have seen more than 400 rockets bombard southern Israel in a 25-hour period. Four mediators—Egypt, the United Nations, Norway and Switzerland—helped achieve the cease-fire, according to reports. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a joint statement, according to reports, that they are “committed to the cease-fire as long as Israel doesn’t break it and doesn’t attack the Palestinian people.” The terms were negotiated to... Full story
(JNS)—A man was killed and two women were seriously injured when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck an apartment building in Ashkelon in southern Israel by the Mediterranean. United Hatzalah volunteer EMS teams and ambulance crews helped evacuate and treat a woman in her 40s who was seriously injured as a rocket hit her apartment building late Monday. A man, believed to be in his 40s, was also found dead in the rubble. The death is the first reported fatality in Israel since the rocket barrage began. “When I arrived at the scene of the... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that he supported a Palestinian “state-minus,” wherein Israel would maintain a military presence across Israel and the West Bank. Netanyahu also said in a question-and-answer session Wednesday at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America that he suspended the compromise over the egalitarian section at the Western Wall last year because otherwise it would have meant the collapse of his government. Near the end of his remarks, he cited an op-ed publi... Full story
Early elections in Israel? (JTA)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he is confident his coalition partners would not topple his government. Netanyahu’s office issued a statement amid early election talk within the Jewish Home party, which can force Israel to go to the ballots a year earlier than planned by leaving the country’s governing coalition. The prime minister “has confidence in the sense of responsibility of cabinet ministers not to make the historic error of toppling a right-wing government,” the statement said,... Full story
