Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs via JNS)-Two developments currently taking place in the Palestinian arena deserve our attention, and both of these are interlinked: the proposed new government in Ramallah and the situation at the Al-Aqsa plaza on the Temple Mount. In Ramallah, P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas has asked Mohammad Shtayyeh to form a new government, while on the Temple Mount, tensions continue to mount around the Golden Gate or "Gate of Mercy" (Sha'ar HaRachamim or Bab el Rahma).... Full story
(JTA)-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief rival, Benny Gantz, will speak at the annual AIPAC policy conference in Washington ahead of national elections next month in Israel. Gantz, whose new center-left Blue and White party is leading Netanyahu's Likud in the polls, will address the pro-Israel lobby's main session plenary on March 25. Gantz, a former chief of staff of the Israeli military who heads Blue and White, will "use his speech to emphasize that after the election he... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed a Fatah Party insider who was educated abroad as prime minister. Mohammad Shtayyeh, a longtime Abbas ally, was announced on Sunday as the new prime minister. He replaces Rami Hamdallah, who had been prime minister since 2014. Shtayyeh, a member of the central committee of the Palestinian president's Fatah party, will form a new government. An economist, Shtayyeh earned a PhD in development at Sussex University in Britain... Full story
(JNS)-After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Golan Heights this week together with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk set off a firestorm when he tweeted, "Like it or not, the Golan Heights are Syrian territory. Israel cannot give them up now given its legitimate security concerns. But to recognize Israel's annexation of territory that is not its own is to play with fire for partisan... Full story
(JNS)-Caroline B. Glick, a senior columnist at Breitbart News, was the senior contributing and chief columnist for The Jerusalem Post until she decided to run for the Knesset in the upcoming April national elections. Born in Houston, she grew up in Chicago and moved to Israel in 1991, two weeks after earning her bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University. She joined the Israel Defense Forces that summer and served as an officer for five-and-a-half years. From 1994-1996, as... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Diaspora Jews can’t vote in Israeli elections. It’s been proposed and, so far, consistently shot down by Israeli lawmakers. And, let’s be honest, the average Israeli voter rarely, if ever, thinks about Diaspora Jews. And they base their votes on the same issues that voters in other countries do—for example, the economy, education, health care and security (OK, so the last one is more an Israeli thing). So it should come as no surprise that most of the candidates in Israel’s national elections on April 9 are not really worr... Full story
Cruz to introduce resolution condemning anti-Semitism (JNS)—U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has reportedly been spearheading a resolution explicitly condemning anti-Semitism that he plans to introduce early next week. Jewish Insider reported the development on Friday, citing “a source familiar with the plan,” who said it is “just a condemnation of anti-Semitism. There’s nothing extraneous. The entire thing clocks in at just over 100 words.” It comes one day after the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning anti-... Full story
(Chabad.org/News via JNS)—One of the chief engineers involved in the creation and post-launch supervision of the moon-bound Israeli spacecraft “Beresheet” is a Chabad-Lubavitch Chassid who overcame Soviet oppression and anti-Semitism to play a leading role in Israel’s public and private space programs. Mathematician and engineer Alexander Friedman, 68, currently enjoys the freedoms and high accolades of a noted Israeli rocket scientist, but was once part of a Soviet-era family forced to pray in silence for fear the neighbors would turn them in... Full story
(JTA)-Participants in a street celebration in the Belgian city of Aalst paraded giant puppets of Orthodox Jews and a rat atop money bags. Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs condemned the float Sunday at the annual Aalst Carnaval street celebration as "shocking." It contains "typical, anti-Semitic caricatures from 1939," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The umbrella groups representing Flemish and French-speaking Jews in Belgium, FJO and CCOJB respectively, complained to the federal UNIA wat... Full story
Mayors from around the world form coalition to combat anti-Semitism, BDS (JNS)—Mayors from around the world have announced a coalition to combat anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment. Announcing the launch last week of a Global Mayors Coalition Against Hate, Antisemitism and BDS were Mayor Uwe Becker of Frankfurt, Germany; Mayor Gabriel Groisman of Bal Harbour, Fla.; and Mayor Haim Bibas of Modi’in-Maccabim-Reut in Israel. The announcement was at the MuniWorld Conference—the annual international municipal conference hosted by the Federation of... Full story
(JTA)-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to court on corruption charges-he says he's innocent. Netanyahu was indicted in three cases Thursday pending a court hearing. It's the first time in Israel's history that a sitting prime minister faces criminal charges. Oh, and elections are in fewer than six weeks. What exactly is Netanyahu accused of? How is he defending himself? Does this mean he'll lose the election? Who is Benjamin Netanyahu, and what is he accused of? Netanyahu,... Full story
(JNS)-With so many new businesses sprouting up in Israeli and Palestinian communities in Judea and Samaria, isn't it possible to create some form of collaboration between them to share resources and take advantage of shared opportunities? That's what many people hope to achieve. Last week, the Judea Samaria Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Israel Education Association came together at Jerusalem's David Citadel hotel to launch the Regional Development Financial Initiative as part of the... Full story
(JNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to comment on last week’s controversial merger between the Jewish Home and the far-right Otzma Yehudit parties ahead of the Israeli elections in April. “We’re not about to get involved in an election, to interfere in an election of a democracy, Pompeo told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “Election campaigns are tough. We’ll allow the Israeli people to sort this out, and I am confident that when the election’s over the United States will continue to have a strong, important, very, very deep relatio... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—An American Orthodox Jewish group is defending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to work with a far-right political party. It is the first statement by a major American Jewish organization defending Netanyahu’s decision. Last week, Netanyahu orchestrated an agreement between the extremist Jewish Power and Jewish Home, a religious Zionist party. The merger will increase the united party’s chances of gaining enough votes to enter Knesset, Israel’s parliament. An array of centrist and liberal American Jewish gr... Full story
(JNS)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to cut a deal with Bayit Yehudi, and its subsequent temporary union with right-wing political parties National Union and Otzma Yehudit, has created a political storm, being called “foul” and worse by some. And with others calling it a “reprehensible political party with racist roots” and an “anti-Arab group,” a number of Jewish American organizations have come out against the deal involving Otzma, which they consider an extremist and racist party, and which they don’t want to see as pa... Full story
(JTA)—Even before he was old enough to vote, Justyn Trenner was already a supporter of Britain’s Labour Party. Trenner, now a 54-year-old financial adviser from London, had felt at home there thanks to Labour’s mild socialism and anti-racist agenda. That had made it a favorite for many British Jewish voters like him. But he and other Jews have become politically homeless. Trenner feels like he’s been driven out of Labour by the proliferation of anti-Semitic hate speech in the party ranks following the 2015 election of Jeremy Corbyn as its lea... Full story
I’ve been called many things in my life, but never black. Until recently. I was visiting with a friend who is a black pastor in Chicago and at one point he burst out “you must be half black.” He meant it as a compliment, and I received it as such. Since then he’s invited me to speak in his church as an Orthodox American-born Israeli Jew about black Jewish relations later this month, Black History month. I agreed immediately and enthusiastically. It’s one of the most meaningful and important invitations I’ve ever received. Unlike my children wh... Full story
$464 million more paid out to victims of Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme By Marcy Oster (JTA)—Another $464 million has been paid out to victims of Bernie Madoff’s $19 billion Ponzi scheme, bringing the total distributions in the case to more than $12 billion. The new payout to 880 former Madoff clients began on Friday with checks ranging from $429 to $66 million, Bloomberg reported, citing the office of trustee Irving Picard. The total distributions equal about two-thirds of each allowed claim, Picard said. Clients who suffered certified losses of... Full story
(JTA)-When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brokered a partnership between the extreme right-wing party Jewish Power, or Otzma Yehudit, and the more moderate right-wing Jewish Home, the late American-born Rabbi Meir Kahane was suddenly all over the news. Kahane, whose extremist Kach party was outlawed in Israel several years after his assassination in 1990, is the ideological father of Jewish Power. By extending a welcoming hand to the party ahead of Israel's April elections, Netanyahu... Full story
At exactly 8:45 p.m. EST a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off the Florida coast at Cape Canaveral carrying the SpaceIL Lunar Lander, named "Beresheet." The night launch was easily seen from Altamonte Springs as it rose into the atmosphere. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu watched the lift off with his wife, Sarah, South African philanthropist Morris Kahn and a host of others at the Yehud Command Center. At 9:25 p.m. EST, Beresheet separated from the Falcon 9 rocket, deployed its... Full story
(JNS)-When anti-Israel organization "Combatants for Peace" announced recently that it would protest Israel's alleged annexation of Area C-the Israeli-controlled part of Judea and Samaria-the Sovereignty Movement, an offshoot of Women in Green and headed by Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, immediately responded to the provocation. They mobilized a large group of people to attend a lecture by veteran journalist and Knesset candidate Caroline Glick, of the New Right Party, at the Oz veGaon nature... Full story
(JTA)—With the announcement last month that it had picked Robert Kraft as its 2019 laureate, the Genesis Prize seemed poised for a calmer year. Last year the foundation that awards the “Jewish Nobel,” as it’s called, picked actress and director Natalie Portman as an example of someone who provides “inspiration to the next generation of Jews through their outstanding professional achievement along with their commitment to Jewish values and the Jewish people.” The selection backfired, however, when Portman refused to attend the prize ceremony in... Full story
(JNS)—Jordan has expanded a council that administers Muslim institutions on the Temple Mount, giving Palestinians 40 percent of the seats for the first time in a body previously reserved for trusted individuals close to the monarchy of Jordanian King Abdullah Hussein. According to a report by Haaretz on Monday, the Jordanian government enlarged the Waqf religious trust to include Palestinians, who will now have a significantly larger say on the sight of two Jewish Holy Temples: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque. The seven P... Full story
(JNS)—Uri Akavia, a researcher at Kohelet Policy Forum, recently published a new paper titled “Is UNRWA’s hereditary refugee status for Palestinians unique?” In it, of course, he details the origins of the issue since 1948, the year Israel was established, and its ensuing state of affairs. “People have finally realized that UNRWA [U.N. Relief and Works Agency], is a very large and important organization that is perpetuating a problem that should not have even existed after 70 years,” he told JNS. When U.S. President Donald Trump announced l... Full story
Thousands protest anti-Semitism in marches across France By Josefin Dolsten (JTA)—Thousands participated Tuesday in demonstrations against anti-Semitism across France. Protesters took to the streets in some 70 marches only hours after nearly 100 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in the eastern French village of Quatzenheim were discovered vandalized with swastikas. Some protesters held posters saying “That’s Enough.” “Whoever did this is not worthy of the French republic and will be punished,” President Emmanuel Macron said at a visit to th... Full story
