"The children struggled in her womb, and she said, 'If this is so, then why am I?'" -- Genesis 25:22

We read in this week's Torah portion that even in the womb, Rebecca's children Jacob and Esau quarreled. And their perennial struggle brought her to an existential outcry: if this is so, then why am I? If this is the only possibility for my sons, she seems to be saying, then my motherhood -- even my whole existence -- feels called into question. If fighting is all there is, then what's the point?

Several thousand people turned out for the 19th annual Rabin memorial rally Saturday night, including President Reuven Rivlin and Rabin’s son, Yuval Rabin. Former president Shimon Peres gave a fiery speech, noting, "“I say clearly today: Those who have given up on peace are the delusional ones. Those who gave up and stopped looking for peace. they’re the naive ones, the ones who are not patriots....The State of Israel would be giving up on its future if it pursues the status quo and remains without peace."

This week, Alpher discusses whether last week's shooting of Israeli Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick and the subsequent, nearly unprecedented closing of the Mount for a day indicates that we are on the brink of a holy war or new intifada; where the potential is for further geographical expansion of the Jerusalem tension; whether Netanyahu is cowardly in his decision-making; and if the Netanyahu-Obama relationship "stands to get considerably worse after the November midterm elections."

Americans for Peace Now joins its Israeli sister organization, Israel’s Peace Now movement, in strongly condemning the Israeli authorities’ decision to proceed with an East Jerusalem construction project that has triggered deep disapproval among the international community, including in Washington.

Brigadier-General (Res.) Israel Baharav is one of 105 retired Israeli generals and top-tier security establishment officers who on November 3 2014 sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to engage both with the Arab world and with the Palestinians to push a new diplomatic initiative for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and improving Israel's standing regionally and internationally. In this interview with APN, he talks about his motivation for signing the letter and comments on why Israel's security elite is typically more supportive of diplomatic moves than its political leadership.

To listen to the interview with Brig. Gen. Baharav click below:

Today is the 19th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. PM Rabin had the courage and the vision to sign  a peace agreement with Jordan. He also signed an agreement with the PLO that, if carried out would have paved the way to a two-state solution. 

Washington, DC – Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem, in which a Palestinian motorist rammed his van into a crowed of civilians at the seam-line between East and West Jerusalem, killing an Israeli policeman and injuring several bystanders.  This is the second such attack in Jerusalem in two weeks.

Despite the Republican win, U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the next two years depends first and foremost on President Obama, not Congress. But will he finally stand up to Netanyahu?

Tuesday's election delivered the Senate into Republican hands and gave them the largest House majority in 80 years. What impact will this election have on America’s policy vis-à-vis Israel and the quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace?

...Keep the status quo

By tradition, the binding of Isaac – the Akedah – which occurs in this week’s Torah portion, is held to have taken place on the site known today as the Temple Mount. During the last few days, as tensions in Jerusalem reached new heights over the Temple Mount, I have been reading the portion and thinking about the meaning the Temple Mount has for Jews – and about how sad it is that, rather than respecting it as a place of peace, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, extremists on both sides choose this site to fan the flames of holy war.

This week, Alpher discusses whether the unrest in Arab East Jerusalem is just a Palestinian-Israeli issue or is it also an internal issue involving the Arab citizens of Israel; whether the unrest accomplished anything for the Palestinian cause; how committed is the Arab-Israeli to the anti-Jewish demonstrations that broke out on Saturday; how does all this affect the broader Palestinian issue, and particularly the Fateh-Hamas/West Bank-Gaza reconciliation process; the Netanyahu government's apparent fraying;