Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 712 - 736 of 2213
Netanyahu backtracks, suspending African migrants deal he praised hours earlier (JTA)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is freezing an agreement made with the United Nations that would have relocated thousands of African asylum seekers to Western countries. Just hours after announcing and praising the agreement, Netanyahu said Monday that he needed to consult with residents of South Tel Aviv before carrying it out. Many of the migrants reside in that region of the Israeli city. In the agreement announced earlier Monday with the U.N. H... Full story
(EJP / Exclusive to JNS via JNS)-The umbrella representative body of French Jewish organizations, known as Crif, has called for a rally on Wednesday in Paris in memory of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Jewish woman brutally killed in her apartment. Knoll, who lived alone in the 11th district of Paris, was found after her apartment was set ablaze, police sources said. An autopsy showed her charred body also had at least 11 stab wounds. A Holocaust survivor, Knoll had managed to evade as a child... Full story
(JNS)-Since Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip more than a decade ago, it has built, trained, and armed a terrorist-army and guerilla force, and planted it in high-rise buildings, underground bunkers, and tunnels, in the midst of the civilian population. Israel and Hamas have engaged in three large-scale conflicts and numerous smaller-scale flare-ups over the past ten years, and, as the IDF looks ahead to the future, it is preparing new ways for its units to operate in this urban warfare... Full story
Slain Paris Holocaust survivor was targeted because she was Jewish, French police say (JTA)—Prosecutors investigating the slaying of a Holocaust survivor in Paris said the two suspects in custody targeted her because she was Jewish. The development in the investigation of the March 23 slaying of Mirelle Kanol came with the arrest of two men on Monday, Le Figaro reported, citing a police source. “The supposed or actual belonging of the victim to a religion was a grounds” for the attack, the source told Le Figaro, in addition to her being “vuln... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Trump administration in a statement said it “sympathizes deeply” with the families whose lawsuit against the Palestine Liberation Organization may soon be considered by the Supreme Court, but continues to maintain that the lawsuit does not meet the standards for review by the high court. “The United States condemns acts of terror in the strongest terms and the Department of Justice is committed to prosecuting those who commit terrorist attacks against innocent human beings to the fullest extent that the law allows,... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Trump administration sided with the Palestine Liberation Organization in a terrorism lawsuit that the Supreme Court may soon consider, drawing an angry rebuke from conservatives, including one of its most steadfast Jewish community defenders, the Zionist Organization of America. In 2015, a federal jury in Manhattan ruled in favor of American victims injured in six terror attacks that occurred in Israel between 2002 and 2004, handing down a $656 million decision against the PLO. An appellate court overturned the decision a... Full story
David Friedman rips PA for not condemning deadly attacks on 3 Israelis. Abbas calls the ambassador ‘son of a dog.’ JERUSALEM (JTA)—The U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, criticized the Palestinian Authority for not condemning two terror attacks in recent days that left three Israelis dead. Later Monday, at the opening of a Palestinian leadership meeting, P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas called Friedman a “son of a dog” and a “settler” after noting that the ambassador views settlements as legitimate and supported them as a private citiz... Full story
(MEMRI via JNS)—Marking the 22nd anniversary of the Jaffa Road bus bombings, perpetrated in 1996 by Hamas, the movement’s military wing, the ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, posted on its website a special supplement devoted to these attacks. The bombings, dubbed “The Holy Revenge” by Hamas, were carried out in retaliation for the Jan. 5, 1996, killing of senior Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash, who was responsible for several other suicide attacks. The special online supplement included two long articles about their planning and execution, a review... Full story
ISRAEL21c-Ten days after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, experts from the Israel Trauma Coalition arrived at the community to guide teachers, clinicians, law enforcers, first responders, social workers, parents and clergy through a "day after" strategy for helping people face the future with resilience. The community, which had never dealt with a shooting on this scale, was in shock. "It was devastating," said Nancy Teitelbaum, senior director of marketing and... Full story
(JNS)-On the margins of the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., more than 300 conference attendees gathered at the prestigious Sixth & I Historic Synagogue on Monday to express support for the nearly 500,000 residents of Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. AIPAC leaders did not permit the session on one of Israel's most controversial topics to be included within the conference's vast schedule. Yet the high-profile event was co-sponsored by Israel's Ministry of Strategic... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Vice President Mike Pence said that unless the Iran nuclear deal is fixed in the “coming months,” the United States would withdraw from it. Pence made the promise, to cheers, during his address Monday night to the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C. The deal, which was signed in 2015 by Iran, the United States and a group of other world powers, curbs Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. President Donald Trump opposes the agreement. In October, he declined to... Full story
Milos Zeman, recently elected to his second five-year term as president of the Czech Republic, would like to speed up the process of moving his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, the Lidové noviny newspaper reported. The Americans announced in February that as an initial step they would be turning their consulate in Jerusalem into an embassy on May 14, coinciding with Israel’s 70th anniversary. Daniel Meron, Israel’s ambassador to Prague, tweeted that according to the Czech paper, Zeman would like his country to join US President Donald Trump... Full story
(JNS)—In a bid to end the contentious debate surrounding Poland’s controversial Holocaust law, the Simon Wiesenthal Center released a declassified report on Thursday highlighting Polish complicity in persecuting Jews during the Holocaust. The U.S. State Department report from May 15, 1946—released by the Simon Wiesenthal Center on the same day that the Polish Holocaust law went into effect—found “evidence that Poles persecuted the Jews as vigorously as did the Germans.” The report, declassified in 1983, found that “native Poles” took p... Full story
(JTA)-A prestigious think tank on tolerance comprising former European leaders honored Prince Albert II of Monaco for his apology for his country's treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, among other actions. The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation on Tuesday bestowed its European Medal of Tolerance on the head of state of the principality sandwiched between France and Italy, who in 2015 acknowledged his country's rounding up and deportation of 66 Jews in 1942."You have found the... Full story
Trump administration ready to make Mideast peace plan public (JTA)—The Trump administration is finishing up its Middle East peace plan and intends to make it public soon, The New York Times reported. The White House must now figure out how to present the plan so that it is not immediately rejected by the Palestinians, the newspaper reported, citing three unnamed senior administration officials. An unnamed senior aide to President Donald Trump compared the plan to Waze, the Israeli-developed traffic navigation software. According to the r... Full story
VIENNA (JTA)-Until December, Milli Segal's main challenge as a producer of Jewish-themed events in Austria was balancing her duties at work with her hands-on approach to being a Jewish grandmother of four. As an organizer of prestigious Holocaust commemoration projects, Segal, 63, is on a first-name basis with some of the country's most senior politicians, and draws on 20 years of experience to prevent or solve most any complication. Last year alone, she headed the communications efforts around... Full story
President Donald Trump says he may visit Israel in May for the opening of a new US Embassy in Jerusalem. Trump commented during an Oval Office meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new embassy is set to open in May, and Trump says he’ll head to Israel for the dedication ceremony “if I can.” A ribbon-cutting for an interim facility is being planned to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence. Trump also said his embassy decision was “appreciated in a big part of the world.” Netanyahu arrived at... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a simple, straightforward message this week when he toured Israel's border with Syria and Lebanon with top security officials. "Our face is turned toward peace, we are ready for any eventuality, and I don't suggest anyone test us," he said Tuesday in a video message he posted on Twitter, the sound of helicopter blades whirring in the background. The mixed message signaled Israel's ambivalence about taking on the terrorist group... Full story
(JNS)-After years of bloody warfare, Syria has become a "Shi'a colony of Iran," a Syrian professor who lives in Germany told an Israeli conference in recent days. Addressing the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, Bassam Tibi, professor emeritus of international relations at Georg-August University of Gottingen, said: "They have killed our clans. They have killed our family. The Alawites of the Assad regime have killed our Sunni identity of Damascus." Tibi, a... Full story
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs via JNS The battle for the succession of Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian Authority is heating up. This was apparent from Fatah Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub's recent attack on Egypt, which supports the candidacy of Palestinian politician Muhammad Dahlan for the position of next PA chairman. The Israeli security forces are concerned about a possible bloodbath in the West Bank as soon as Mahmoud Abbas leaves office. The "bombshell" that Jibril Rajoub, secreta... Full story
(JNS)-The granddaughter of former longtime U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman has immigrated to Israel. Nesya Lieberman, 20, made aliyah on Tuesday through the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization, in partnership with the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency of Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and the Jewish National Fund-USA. Nesya, formerly of Atlanta, will join an ulpan, learning Hebrew at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu before beginning a year of national service work. "I've wanted to make aliyah ever... Full story
Privately and off the record, US Ambassador David Friedman gave a pessimistic assessment of issues surrounding a possible peace deal with the Palestinians to a group of officials from the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, according to a Channel 10 News report Monday. "We do not want to raise expectations about the chances of reaching a peace agreement too much. We are realistic. We want a peace agreement, but we know that this would not destroy Hezbollah or ISIS,"... Full story
(JTA)-The row between Poland and Israel about the Holocaust reached new heights this week after Poland's prime minister said that the genocide had not only Polish, Ukrainian and German perpetrators, but Jewish ones as well. Addressing a new law that criminalizes blaming Poland for Nazi crimes, Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview Saturday that the law's effects would not be as sweeping as its critics complain. "It's not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators,... Full story
(JTA)—Benjamin Netanyahu is in trouble. Maybe. The Israeli prime minister is engulfed simultaneous in four separate scandals, and each day seems to bring him more bad news. Netanyahu could be indicted or pushed out of office -- or both. Whether this is the beginning of the end of the Bibi Netanyahu era, or just the latest challenge to a seasoned political survivor, is the hot topic in Israel. First, Netanyahu was accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal gifts from a wealthy American. Then he was accused of making a s... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Sheldon Adelson’s offer to help pay for the new US Embassy in Jerusalem is getting a thumb’s down from a range of observers who support the embassy’s relocation. The Associated Press had the exclusive on Friday morning, and JTA confirmed it with sources who have been apprised of the State Department’s deliberations. State Department lawyers are poring over the law books to determine how to pull off America’s first privately funded embassy. Why the Trump administration would want this? Well, no one’s saying, but cost-cutting... Full story
