Category: Articles

Thursday evening, March 15, Terrace on the Park in Queens, NY was the scene of a gathering of over 700 people, brought together by the National Council of Young Israel, to celebrate 70 years of the creation of the State of Israel, as well as President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Helen Freedman, AFSI’s Co-Executive Director, was one of the many honorees, given the Aishes Chayil Award. Ken Abramowitz, AFSI Board member was honored with the Shofar Award. Helen was so pleased and thankful to AFSI’s loyal members and Chizuk participants – those who join the semi-annual missions to Israel over and over again, for attending in such large numbers. It was a joyous reunion for the many friends and family who helped to make the event so meaningful.

Councilman Arieh King from Jerusalem has escorted the AFSI group around Yerushalayim for many years. We were especially pleased to greet him at the event and to see him as part of the delegation which honored Consul General Nivia Rosemary Arauz Monzon from Guatemala for that country’s announcement in support of their embassy in Jerusalem.

Sander Gerber introduced the subject of the Taylor Force Act which would withhold U.S. Funds to the PA while they continue to pay terrorists and their families for their murderous deeds. The audience was encouraged to call the offices of Congressman Eliot Engel (202) 225-2464 and Senator Mitch McConnell (202) 224-2541, to urge them to get the Bill passed in the Senate. It has already passed in the House. Stuart Force, the father of Taylor Force, z”l, who was brutally knifed in Israel by a PA terrorist, after surviving service in Iraq and Afghanistan, spoke movingly about his son and his tragic death. We know that Taylor Force is only one of the many victims of Arab terrorism. Closing off the spigot of funding for the terrorists is the only logical thing to do.

Kudos to Dinner Chairman Dr. Joseph Frager, to the Journal and Dinner Coordinators, Carol and Judah Rhine, and to the Program Chairmen, Rabbi Marc Volk and Rabbi Binyamin Hammer.

Congratulations also to all the honorees and speakers. Special thanks to Anthony Scaramucci, who concluded the evening with warm and complimentary remarks to the Jewish community.

AFSI looks forward to this beginning of a meaningful and productive partnership with NCYI in championing the many causes in Israel and America that cry for attention and action.

A recent article in the Gatestone Institute discusses the fact that the current leadership in Greece has a good chance of being defeated. This has the potential to reinvigorate new life into critical partnerships with Israel and the United States.

Adonis Georgiadis, the vice president of Greece’s opposition party, New Democracy,declared his support for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Full story HERE

The governments of former Israeli Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir sought to transfer the Arabs of the Gaza Strip to Judea and Samaria, according to documents published this morning by journalists Hagai Huberman and Dr. Miriam Billig.

Arutz Sheva story HERE 

Arutz Sheva reports that Arabs from the village of Einabus this morning began clearing a road with a backhoe loader, which would connect the outskirts of the village to Yitzhar.

This is ostensibly an area under closed military zone order, but until now the army has not stopped the work.

As a sovereign nation, Israel cannot sit back with its hands tied and allow this to happen.

The land belongs to Israel and she needs to exercise her right to it.

Need we say more?

Noam Arnon, the spokesman for the Jewish community of Hevron, on Wednesday blasted the judicial system, the army and the police following the ruling of the Supreme Court that the residents of the Machpela House in Hevron would be evicted.

Arnon told Arutz Sheva that he was not surprised by the ruling. “We saw the system’s attitude to Jews who want to buy a house in Hevron. The entire system treats them unfairly, with hostility, and this is the result.”

This is not our Israel. Shame on the government.

Three high ranking Broward County officials did not recommend Deputy Nezar Hamze for employment with the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Hamze not only lacked even the most basic qualifications for the job, he also was and remains an actively-serving Florida state-level official for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), HAMAS’ Muslim Brotherhood front group in the US for whom he conducted active shooter weapons training inside identifiable Muslim Brotherhood Islamic Centers–but obviously failed adequately to train his own Broward County deputies on how to defend Florida students from an active shooter inside a school.

The below video exposes this disgraceful truth.

AFSI looks forward to the appointment of Mike Pompeo as US Secretary of State, which was also welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Pompeo has always held the position that the Iran nuclear deal does not guarantee that Iran has no pathway to developing a bomb.

While he was a Kansas congressman, Pompeo was among a group of American lawmakers who introduced legislation that would have prohibited then President Barack Obama from providing Iran direct or indirect access to the U.S. dollar or the American financial system.

Source: Arutz Sheva

In Caroline Glick’s Jerusalem Post OpEd today, Glick writes, “AIPAC’s mission to cultivate and maintain bipartisan support for Israel in the United States is an important mission. Unfortunately, the messages AIPAC’s leaders delivered during the organization’s annual policy convention this week in Washington indicate that they are at a loss for how to achieve their mission in the contentious political environment now prevalent in post- Obama America.”

The American Jewish leadership’s downward spiral has accelerated. This can be traced back to its cowardly silence when US president Barack Obama began treating Israel as a rogue state and applying moral equivalence to Israelis and Palestinian terrorists.

The leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements and the Anti-Defamation League have effectively become adjuncts of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Many leaders in the Reform and Conservative movements, along with the Anti-Defamation League, have become so obsessed with hatred of US President Donald Trump that their bitterness supersedes their support for Israel.

Read more of Isi Liebler’s Opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post.

This year’s event was organized and sponsored by the YESHA Council in partnership with the State of Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy and the Jordan Valley Regional Council. The event focused on solidifying Israel’s connection to her ancestral heartland and building bridges for peace by supporting the industrial zones of Judea and Samaria which employ thousands of Israeli and Arabs that work together in peace.