Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The Heritage Foundation rightly called the global Hamas support network an existential threat to Israel and all Jews in the Diaspora. In response, they recently conceived of “Project Esther” to serve as an antidote to the Jew-hatred sown in the meadows of higher learning and readily spread in the corridors of democratic policymaking and the mass media. This project is now needed more than ever because the damage caused by the pro-Palestinian interest groups has infected the minds of impressionable youth in the United States, clear...
(JNS) — The phenomenon of playing with terminology—altering the original meanings of words, replacing intentions of expressions, mistranslating and reversing narratives—has become the weapon of choice of the anti-Zionists. Whereas in previous decades their propaganda was one of simply misleading, misquoting, misrepresenting and outright lying, today’s pro-Palestine cadres create a new vocabulary and fill terms with their preferred new definitions. Not only has a new glossary of terms been fashioned, but those terms and words do not just describ...
(JNS) — Under clear pressure from the United States, Israel refrained from targeting Iran’s nuclear development sites in last week’s retaliatory strikes against Iran’s military assets. But that merely delays Israel’s dilemma of what to do about this existential danger. By all Western intelligence estimates, Iran is at most months and possibly just weeks away from having deployable nuclear weapons. Hence, both the United States and Israel face an inescapable choice: Either massively bomb Iran’s nuclear development sites now to stop and disable...
(JNS) — Steven Erlanger has been writing about Israel for The New York Times for nearly 30 years. How can it be that he still doesn’t know what the Oslo Accords say? Even before he was hired by the Times, Erlanger was writing about the Middle East for The Boston Globe in the 1980s. In early 1996—a little more than two years after the signing of Oslo I on the White House lawn—he became the Times’ chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington and wrote plenty about America’s Middle East policy. He even served as the Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief...
(JNS) — Young Israeli soldiers on patrol in Gaza two weeks ago encountered and eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas commander who plotted and implemented the invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 and the brutal massacre that followed. This long-anticipated milestone was a significant battle won in a war that will not soon end. To understand why, you need to understand who Sinwar was and the cause for which he fought. His goal was not to force Israel to end the “occupation” of Gaza because, as a matter of incontestable fact, all Israelis departed Gaza...
(JNS) — In recent years, the American evangelical community—long considered a bastion of conservative values—has been undergoing a significant shift. The younger generation of evangelicals, millennials and Generation Z is embracing a more progressive outlook, especially on issues like climate change, racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights. Many see this as a potential threat to evangelical support for Israel, which has been historically unwavering and tied to conservative politics. For decades, evangelical support for Israel has been a corne...
(JNS) — Believe it or not, the hero of this week’s Torah portion, Noah, needed a not-so-gentle push to get him into the Ark that he himself had built! “And Noah, his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark because of the flood waters,” (Genesis 7:7). Interpreting this verse, the great commentator Rashi says that Noah only went into the ark because the floodwaters pushed him inside. He himself wasn’t quite sure this flood thing was really going to happen, but eventually, when he was getting rather wet, he decided to seek refuge...
(The Gatestone Institute via JNS) — The legacy of the last two Democratic presidencies — Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s — will be the appeasement of Iran in its efforts to dominate the Middle East and eventually expand its influence through the acquisition of a nuclear arsenal. Obama has been the “Chamberlain” in this 21st-century version of Great Britain’s and France’s appeasement of an evil and dangerous regime. In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain thought he had a secure peace treaty with Hitler — “Peace in our time,” he prom...
(JNS) — One year ago, our enemies launched an unprecedented assault on the Jewish state. On Oct. 7, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s proxy terror network unleashed an unprecedented and heinous massacre to kill as many Jews as possible and destroy the State of Israel. Decades in the making, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Qatar, and yes, the Palestinian Authority plotted together, united by a common goal: to wipe Israel off the map. Despite knowing about such plans over the years, Israel chose to hold back. No Israeli government, including those led by Isr...
(JNS) — Some people here in Israel reportedly cried tears of joy over the killing by the Israel Defense Forces of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Rafah area of Gaza on Wednesday. Others were jubilant. I was not. Yes, there’s enormous relief. There’s huge satisfaction that at last Sinwar has met his long overdue fate. The world is a better place without him. It’s also an immense victory for the Israel Defense Forces. And it’s another vindication of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s determination to send the IDF into the Hamas stron...
(JNS) — Last week, the Jewish people celebrated the holiday of Sukkot. Last year, the holiday ended with the Oct. 7 pogrom in Israel. This year, we are celebrating our strength, resilience and success in fighting evil. Sukkot is the holiday when everything culminates: The annual holiday cycle that begins with Passover, the High Holidays that begins with Rosh Hashanah, and, in the mystical tradition, references the culmination of human history. That is why our Torah readings speak of the “end of days” and the final battles that will happe...
(JNS) — Is it just me, or is the “new” antisemitism starting to sound a lot like the old kind? In recent weeks, The New York Times has twice published remarks that directly invoked classic antisemitic stereotypes. Many of us had thought that kind of crude bigotry had finally been eliminated from the mainstream media. Apparently not. Book reviewer Sam Kriss wrote in the Times on Aug. 20 that his Jewish identity is rooted in his affinity for books, matzah-ball soup and his “overbearing mother.” If a reporter would ask him about it—althou...
(JTA) — Voters weigh their values and priorities before casting their ballot for president. For me, achieving and maintaining peace in the world is the single most important issue to consider when choosing the president of the United States. When we look at the last four years of the Harris-Biden administration versus the four years of President Trump’s administration, there is no comparison. For the four years of Trump’s presidency we had peace, but the world is very different today. President Trump eliminated the funding to Iran when he wi...
(JTA) — I was born and raised in Israel, the oldest of 10 siblings, in a liberal-minded Orthodox Jewish family. I love my family, a diverse gang of smart people who respect one another even when disagreeing. Politically we are a mixed group. Some of us are fiscally conservative or libertarian. Others are traditional liberals who believe in a social safety net. Although only three of us live in the United States, we are all American citizens and eligible voters in the November elections. We share a concern for the State of Israel and for the saf...
On Nov. 5, 2024, Americans will be voting in what many view as the most consequential elections in our history. As I make my selections, it will be imperative that my choices reflect the values that are important to me not only as a Jew but also as a human being, those concerning freedom, truth, justice, equality, intelligent leadership, and empathy. In a recent poll by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, 72 percent of Jewish voters backed Vice President Kamala Harris, and 25 percent supported former President Donald Trump. In 2021, the P...
For single-issue voters for whom Israel is the most paramount, the choice in November hinges on which candidate is truly best for the Jewish state. Voters leaning toward Donald Trump tout him as the most pro-Israel president in history. Without trying to compare his policies to, say, Harry Truman, who made the Partition Plan happen, or Lyndon Johnson, who established the U.S. as Israel’s principal arms supplier and guarantor of its qualitative edge, or Ronald Reagan, who institutionalized U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, let’s examine Tru...
(JNS) — Tuesday evening. The conductor of the train from Jerusalem to Herzliya apologizes to passengers ahead of the first stop in Tel Aviv after Ben-Gurion Airport. “Sorry, but we can’t go any farther,” he announces over the loudspeaker. “The security situation doesn’t allow for it.” Irritated sighs could be heard from rush-hour commuters, tired mothers with cranky children and travelers with suitcases in tow. Sketchy internet connections disrupted the updated emergency alert instructing the entire country to shelter until further notic...
“The Emperor’s New Clothes,” by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, was published in 1837. It has been adapted in many forms. Today, “the emperor has no clothes,” is a metaphor for people living or perpetrating a lie or are too stupid to admit that. In the original story, an emperor with an obsession for fancy clothes hires conmen posing as weavers to make him magnificent clothes that are so unique, they are invisible to those who are incompetent or stupid. One day, the “weavers” report that the emperor’s new clothes are finished. They...
(JNS) — On Oct. 7, Hamas carried out the most heinous attacks on Jews since the Holocaust. While Diaspora Jews watched in horror and disbelief at events taking place in Israel, few could have imagined the impact on their own lives, especially the outburst of antisemitism to ensue in their communities. Nowhere has this been more acute than at America’s finest universities. Over the past year, Jewish organizations have fought tirelessly to counter this torrent of antisemitism, battling a brand of hatred we thought died generations ago. As the...
(JNS) — On his nightly program recently, long-running HBO news pundit Bill Maher, in reference to one of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s dire misassessments of Hamas’s nefarious intent, demanded that she just “shut up” already. Coming from a lifelong liberal, Maher’s acerbic reprimand should cause pondering Jews to sit up and take note. Maher’s negative assessment of Harris’s grasp on the true nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is further reinforced by the vice president’s completely out-of-touch cheerleading during the presid...
(Gatestone Institute via JNS) — The hatred of extreme left-wing agitators and parts of the left-liberal elite in politics and the media against our Jewish compatriots and the State of Israel since the barbaric massacre of innocent civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, has directly fueled antisemitism and hatred of Jews. It started immediately after Oct. 7 with inflammatory demonstrations of millions of people with false flags and slogans in many European capitals, including many non-Western immigrants, who thereby demonstrated that they do not share a...
Yeah, I’m celebrating. For the past two weeks, Israel (including the Mossad, IDF, and military intelligence) have shown unparalleled prowess and success in the global war on terror. First, thousands of Hezbollah beepers exploded on command. Then their walkie talkies. This is recognized as the most precise anti-terrorist operation ever. Before and after, Israel took credit for the targeted assassination of nearly all the top Hezbollah leaders. Israel targeted and destroyed countless Hezbollah missiles and launchers, along with other weapons a...
(JNS) — Hey, does anybody still make New Year’s resolutions? Maybe you do, and yours goes something like mine, “My New Year’s resolution this year is to keep the resolutions I made last year!” My friend said that his goes like this, “My New Year’s resolution is to have a fat bank account and a skinny body. Last year, I got mixed up.” Most people I know have long stopped making New Year’s resolutions because they know it doesn’t work. They just go “in one year and out the other!” In much of the world today, especially for us Jews in Israel a...
(JNS) — Starting with the explosion of thousands of beepers and pagers of Hezbollah members in Lebanon on Sept. 17 and with the elimination of Hezbollah senior leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27 along with practically all of the highest-ranking members of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, Israel is once again reclaiming its vaunted military might that seemed to have atrophied on Oct. 7. This might constitute a sea change in the Iranian grip on the Lebanese political landscape and could have ramifications for the Islamic Republic of Iran, thr...
(JNS) — At almost the exact moment that Israeli forces were eliminating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon—one of the world’s most notorious mass murderers of Israelis and Americans—left-of-center American Jewish groups were delivering a letter to Israel’s ambassador in Washington, demanding that Israel make more concessions to Hamas. The juxtaposition of the two developments shines a light on the extreme tone-deafness that has overtaken many on the U.S. Jewish left. The letter that the liberal groups delivered to the Israeli e...
