Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(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...
(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...
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...
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...
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...
(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...
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...
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...
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...
(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...
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...
(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...
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...
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,...
(JNS)—As the latest attacks against Israel from Hamas have taken place in Gaza, the U.S. State Department condemned the terrorist group and reaffirmed that Israel has the right to defend itself. “We are aware of reports of ongoing rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza against targets in Israel,” a State Department official told JNS on Monday. “We condemn these attacks and call for their immediate halt. We stand with Israel as it defends itself against these attacks.” According to the Israeli D...
(JNS)-Jewish and pro-Israel groups are reacting to the latest round of violence in Gaza after Hamas launched nearly 400 rockets into Israeli civilian areas since Sunday, following the death of an Israeli special-forces soldier. On Monday night, one man was reported killed and two women injured in the city of Ashkelon when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit their apartment building. In response, the Israel Defense Forces reacted by striking 20-plus Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets...
(JNS)—The second round of American sanctions on Iran will took effect on Nov. 5. That’s been the plan since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in May from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, which lifted those sanctions. The upcoming round will include targeting Iran’s “energy, shipping and the ship-building sectors, as well as the provision of insurance and transactions involving the Central Bank of Iran and designated Iranian financial institutions,” said State Dep...
(Israel Hayom via JNS)-Until a few weeks ago, Jair Bolsonaro, now the president-elect of Brazil, was a little-known legislator. No one thought he would go on to become the leader of the country. But on Wednesday, a week after he astonished everyone by winning the presidential election in Brazil-the largest democracy in Latin America-Bolsonaro chose Israel Hayom for what appears to be his first interview with the foreign media, and made it clear that his support for Israel and promises about...
Nation of Islam leader and prominent anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan chanted "Death to America" and claimed that "America has never been a democracy" on Sunday during a solidarity trip to Iran, ahead of the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on the country this week. According to Iran's semi-official state news agency Mehr, Farrakhan said at a meeting with the Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei that America is conspiring against Iran. He also compared President Donald Trump to Satan....
(MEMRI via JNS)—Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan visited Iran as the Islamic Republic celebrated the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979. During a speech at Tehran University, Farrakhan said that the United States is “gloating” over new economic sanctions. He said that nothing happens without the will of Allah, and added: “Is it not true that you have called America the Great Satan? If you believe that, then wouldn’t Satan be actively involved in trying to destroy a nation that is set up on... submissio...
(JNS) Saudi Arabia's King Salman and his powerful son Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (known for short as "MBS") continue to project stability despite the jitters that the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi sent through the American and European capitals. MBS appears confident, no matter the widely reported claims that he was responsible for Khashoggi's killing. On Monday, the prince launched the building of the country's first nuclear reactor. Meanwhile, the king started a weeklong domestic...
(JNS)-Dubbed the "tropical Trump," Jair Bolsonaro's victory on Sunday appears to have imbued much of Brazil's population with renewed hope for a better economy and less corruption. The win by the right-wing, anti-establishment figure may also upend the country's foreign policy, which has brought renewed hope for better relations between the Latin American country and Israel. Indeed, during his campaign, Bolsonaro said he would make Israel the first country he visits as president and would move...
(Palestinian Media Watch via JNS)-Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus spoke to members of Dutch Parliament yesterday documenting the many ways in which the Palestinian Authority in itself is the fundamental impediment to peace. Marcus documented PA's vicious Antisemitism, its indoctrination of children to hatred and terror, as well as the PA's continued monthly payments to terrorist prisoners and families of killed terrorists. Members of Dutch Parliament expressed their condemnation o...
(JNS)—Bar-Ilan University prohibited a student group on campus from distributing pro-Israel advocacy material about the nakba (“catastrophe”) and the Palestinian refugees. The ban occurred earlier this week ahead of the university’s “student group fair,” an event where students on campus were invited to present their groups to others. One of the student groups, Im Tirtzu, was denied permission by the university from distributing its Nakba Nonsense and The Palestinian Refugee Lie booklets, which according to Im Tirtzu are its most popular boo...
(JNS)—A controversial bill that would execute Palestinian terrorists found guilty of murdering Israeli civilians or soldiers was given the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. The prime minister gave coalition party heads the go-ahead in a legislative agenda meeting, where he said opposition from Shin Bet security services and Israel Defense Forces’ officials should not prevent lawmakers from advancing the bill, which has been stalled since January. Though Israel does allow for the death penalty, it was only used once...
