Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(EJP via JNS)—The European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee will vote on whether to freeze more than 15 million euros ($17 million) in aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it removes incitement to violence against Israel in its school textbooks. The Budgetary Committee’s bill is an amendment to the European Union’s draft budget, which will go to a plenary vote in late October. If the budget passes, the E.U. will withhold the money from the Palestinian Authority until it commits to reforming its textbooks. “The funds will be releas...
(JNS)-In his address at the U.N. General Assembly's 73rd session on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visual in hand, revealed a hidden Iranian nuclear facility and secret missiles in Lebanon's capital. "So, distinguished delegates, you have to ask yourself a question," Netanyahu stated point blank to the Assembly members. "Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?... The reason Iran didn't destroy its atomic archive and its atomic warehouse is...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—A letter from 55 U.S. House of Representatives Republicans to President Donald Trump asks him to direct the State Department to allow U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their birth country on their passport. “Despite the progress in moving the embassy, the State Department has not yet fully implemented the administration’s policy of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital for purposes of registration of birth, certification of nationality, or issuance of a passport of a United States citizen born in the cit...
(JNS)—The Israel Defense Forces braced for violent clashes on the Gaza Strip-Israel border on Friday as the “March of Return” national committee urged Gazans to take part in demonstrations and disturbances along the border. Judging by past demonstrations, which have been staged on a weekly basis since late March, protesters were expected to throw rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops securing the border and try to breach the border fence and infiltrate Israeli territory. A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committee posted a call onlin...
In her remarks at a UN Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warned that “Iranian proxies in Iraq operate openly, with funding, training, and weapons supplied by Tehran. The Iranian regime has reportedly begun over the last few months to transfer ballistic missiles to these proxies in Iraq. It is reportedly developing the capability for its proxy militias to produce their own missiles inside of Iraq.” Iran, not Israel, ‘merits debate in Security Council’ “I have always been open abou...
(JNS)-A decision by the Israeli government to award Chinese companies contracts to manage and build key Israeli ports is drawing controversy in Israel. Haifa's growing port, located close to a naval base, will be managed by one Chinese company, while a second port in Ashdod, also near a naval base, is being constructed by a second Chinese firm. The topic made headlines in recent weeks following a University of Haifa conference on Maritime Security in the Eastern Mediterranean. During the confere...
(Israel Hayom via JNS)—Israel will act to counter the Palestinian Authority’s planned payments to the family of a terrorist who murdered an Israeli citizen last Sunday by cutting the same amount from the tax dividends Israel transfers to Ramallah. Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon made the decision after the P.A. announced it would pay a stipend to killer Youssef Ali Jabarin, 17, mere hours after he stabbed Ari Fuld, 45, to death near the Gush Etzion Junction, south of Jerusalem. Fuld managed to shoot his assailant and wound him before col...
Progressive Jewish groups denounce Senate panel’s vote to advance Kavanaugh, while conservatives praise it (JTA)—Progressive Jewish organizations denounced the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to advance the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, while conservative groups lauded it. The committee voted Friday to send the nomination to a full Senate vote a day after it heard testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused the federal appeals court judge of sexually assaulting her when they were in high schoo...
(JNS) The ability of Israel's enemies to target civilians and members of the armed forces with cyber attacks is growing, security experts have warned. In August, the Israeli ClearSky cyber-security company uncovered a Hamas phony and irremovable rocket-alert application, which, if downloaded, can take over a smartphone and access its camera, location services and communications. The malware was timed to coincide with an increase in rocket attacks last month, according to the company. During the...
(JNS) WASHINGTON—Ahead of the second round of American sanctions on Iran in November since the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Friday that those measures will drastically change the way any business is done with the regime. “Make no mistake, come November 4th, there will be a fundamentally different set of rules on anyone who deems it necessary to engage in economic activity with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said. Pompeo added that countries, especially in Europe, have alrea...
(JNS)-When Lt. S (full name withheld), a professional skateboarder, slammed into a safety barrier while traveling at 60 kilometers an hour during a sports event-breaking his back, pelvis and shin a few years ago-he knew he had a long road of recovery ahead of him. He also knew that his dream of having a meaningful service in the Israel Defense Forces would need to wait. Now though, the experience of getting back on his feet helped him gain the mental fortitude that he would later call upon to...
(JNS)-Four years ago, the world waited with bated breath to learn the fate of three Israeli boys-Gilad Shaar, 16; Naftali Fraenkel, 16; and Eyal Yifrach, 19-after they went missing just outside the Gush Etzion community of Kfar Etzion. After a three-week search, news broke that their bodies had been found. Their abduction and murder set off a chain reaction that led to "Operation Protective Edge," the Israeli incursion into Gaza in the summer of 2014. One year later, on Nov. 17, 2015, Ezra Schwa...
(JTA)—For years, American Jewish groups have agitated for more religious pluralism in Israel. And year after year, the Israeli government has acted as if the country’s demographic and political realities make any kind of substantial reform impossible. The latest version of an annual survey disputes that claim: It shows that Jewish Israelis disapprove of how their government handles religious issues. It shows that they want more liberal religious policies. And it says they want American Jews to intervene in the debate. The one wrinkle is tha...
PRAGUE (JTA)-A new Torah scroll is being used in this historic city by one of its two Reform Jewish congregations to welcome the High Holidays and the series of solemn and joyous celebrations that conclude with, what else, Simchat Torah-the rejoicing of the Torah. But it's really not a new scroll at all. Originally a Czech scroll, the Torah has spent the last several decades at a Reform synagogue in London. How it got there, and how it made its way back to Prague, points to the continuing rebuil...
One of Hezbollah’s most important members arrested in Brazil BUENOS AIRES (JTA)—One of Hezbollah’s most wanted members, Assad Ahmad Barakat, was arrested near Brazil’s border with Argentina and Paraguay on Friday. Barakat has been labeled by the U.S. Treasury as one of the Lebanese terrorist group’s main financiers. He is part of the Barakat Clan, a criminal organization known for its links to Hezbollah. Barakat was arrested in Foz de Iguazú, in southern Brazil. That triple border, or Triple Frontier as it is known as, has been linked wit...
(JNS)-It's hard to believe that it's been a quarter of a century: Sept. 13 marked the 25th anniversary of the 1993 signing of the U.S.-brokered Declaration of Principles between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Known also as the Oslo Accords, the deal signed between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and PLO head Yasser Arafat recognized the PLO as the official representative of the Palestinian people. With peace between the two sides the ultimate goal, Israel gradually hande...
(JNS)—Amid tensions between the Trump administration and the Palestinian Authority, the former announced on Sept. 10 that the Washington offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization will close in the same week as the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn is being marked by politicians and the press. “We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous wai...
(JNS)—A bipartisan bill that would cement U.S. military aid to Israel into law has passed a major hurdle on Wednesday night. The U.S. House of Representative approved the measure, known as the Ileana Ros-Lehtinen U.S.-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018, several weeks after it passed the Senate. It will now head for the president’s desk. Under the proposed legislation, the $38 billion in military aid over 10 years spelled out under the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding would be funded through a special mechanism that would be...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel closed its embassy in Paraguay following an announcement by the South American country that it was relocating its embassy back to Tel Aviv four months after moving to Jerusalem. The move comes as Paraguay joins the effort to bring peace to the Middle East. “Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni told reporters on Wednesday. Shortly after the announcement of the return to Te...
(Israel Hayom via JNS)-U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman believes that the Golan Heights will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and certainly won't be placed back in the hands of Syria's current leader, President Bashar Assad. In an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom, which will be published in full on Friday, Friedman says that "I can't imagine a circumstance where the Golan Heights will be returned to Syria. I cannot imagine, frankly, a circumstance where the Golan Heights is not a...
Thousands mourn Ari Fuld, prominent Israel activist stabbed to death by Palestinian JERUSALEM (JTA)—For more than four hours, thousands mourned at a West Bank cemetery for Ari Fuld, the victim of a terrorist stabbing who is being called a hero and “a lion of Israel,” a play on his name, which means lion. Many waved Israeli flags during and after the funeral for the U.S.-born Israel activist killed outside a shopping mall near Efrat, the Etzion bloc town where he lived. The funeral for Fuld, a 45-year-old father of four, began close to midni...
(JNS)-For five months now, since March 2018, Israeli communities bordering Gaza have sustained ongoing terrorism and arson from hundreds of rockets and incendiary devices, causing constant stress and chaos for the 50,000 people who call this region home. Residential and commercial damage, along with some 10,000 acres of land, including forests and agricultural plots, have been destroyed. Just as the worst seemed to be over, this month more than 200 rockets struck the Eshkol and Sha'ar HaNegev Re...
Recently, JTA reported that a Reform congregation won a legal battle to build a synagogue building in the central Israeli city of Hod Hasharon, a wealthy city located several miles north of Tel Aviv. Former Orlando resident Lori Stein Erlich and her Israeli husband, Moshe Erlich, are members of this congregation. Back in 2014, the Erlichs visited the Heritage office to share their vision of having a building for their Reform/Conservative congregation, Kehilat Yonatan (see the article titled "The...
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump told Jewish leaders that the Palestinians would not receive any more aid from the U.S., unless they made a deal with Israel. Trump made the remarks during a conference call placed in anticipation of the Jewish New Year in which the president communicated with a number of American Jewish leaders. Trump’s remarks arrive on the heels of his administration’s decision to cut funds both to the Palestinians’ dedicated UN agency, UNRWA, and direct aid to the Palestinians. To that end, Trump noted during the c...
Israel’s Channel 10 News published a report on Tuesday based on comments from a senior Fatah official demonstrating Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ intense hostility toward any potential deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip. According to the report, the Fatah official told Channel 10 that Abbas was furious with the Egyptians for mediating the agreement, which the PA chief referred to as “treachery and defiance against the leadership.” The official also claimed that Abbas acknowledged that the suppose...
