News Nosh 06.26.15

APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday June 26, 2015 

Numbers of the day:
49 and 9.
--Percentage of Israelis who think a nuclear agreement with Iran is an existential threat and the percentage of those who support Israeli military action against Iran.**

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APN Legislative Round-Up: June 26, 2015

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News Nosh 06.28.15

APN's daily news review from Israel
Sunday June 28, 2015 

Quote of the day:
"What Jew exactly do you want...?" 
--Response of manager to large Jerusalem taxi company when director of Jerusalem Ballet, Marina Neeman, requested he send "only a Jewish driver.** 

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News Nosh 06.29.15

APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday June 29, 2015 

Quote of the day:
“I reached the conclusion that there is no reason to trust the prosecution’s witnesses’ testimony, while the defendant appeared to the court to be trustworthy, from his account of the events until this day."
--In a chilling tale in which the accused became the defendant, Judge Dov Pollock ruled that the defendant, a Palestinian man who called for help from soldiers and police to remove settlers from his property, was the one telling the truth, not the soldiers and police who gave false witness supporting the settlers.**

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June 29, 2015 - Gaza

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This week, Alpher discusses the key dynamics from Israel’s standpoint of the ten-year anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip and a low-key interception and thwarting by Israel of a flotilla trying to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza; regarding the publication of a UN report on human rights aspects of last summer’s Gaza war, whether there is anything that Israel can constructively build on as it looks to future conflicts; whether it made sense that the Netanyahu government refused to cooperate with the Human Rights Commission and refused to allow the latest flotilla to approach the Gaza coast; and why the Gaza Strip is relatively quiet, with Hamas seemingly collaborating with Israel by pursuing the occasional more extreme Islamists who fire isolated rockets at Israel.

 

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Briefing call Wednesday, July 1, noon (EST), on the power of Israeli settlers

Ami Pedahzur

Please join APN for a briefing call on Wednesday, July 1, at 12:00 noon Eastern Time with Prof. Ami Pedahzur, an expert on Israel’s radical right. The author of recent articles on the power of Israeli West Bank settlers, Pedahzur will discuss the political power of the settlers as a chief constituency of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government. He will also analyze other ways in which the ideological settlers built their influence inside Israel’s establishment.

An expert on Israeli right-wing violence, Pedahzur will be available to comment on extremist West Bank settlers’ use of violence to advance their agenda.

Listen to the call here

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Mr Ori Nir222x300Doron Rosenblum, one of Israel’s leading satirists, recently wrote on his Facebook page: “I got it. They (members of the ruling coalition) are defeating criticism and satire through using satire’s own power, as judokas do, by taking themselves beyond the absurd. Today, no satirist can outdo the insanity of" Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Indeed, Israel’s leading television satire show, Eretz Nehederet (What a Wonderful Country), recently ran a humorous quiz on its web site, in which participants were asked to guess whether quotes attributed to Likud Knesset Member Oren Hazan were true or false. I took the quiz and failed miserably. Hazan’s real quotes were much more outlandish than the made-up ones.

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APN's Intern Rosie Berman on Jewschool: The Elephant on the Bus

Shortly before I ended my sophomore year of college, I found myself in my advisor’s office with an important question:

 
“How can I participate in an activity when I profoundly disagree with much of its goals?”
 
You see, I was just about to leave for my Birthright trip, a free trip to Israel–all expenses paid–intended to strengthen the bond between young American Jews and Israel. I’d signed up because a lot of my friends were going, the Birthright coordinator at my school is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, and I wanted to get back to Israel after having been there for a teen tour at the age of 17. 
 
Yet I had a lot of second thoughts. Since my last time there, I’d educated myself about the complex realities of the conflict. I understood that Birthright trips seek to promote an image of Israel among American Jews which, in addition to being dangerously inaccurate, disregards Israel’s democratic character in favor of promoting exclusionary nationalism. I am extremely proud of my Jewish heritage and believe the Jewish people have the right to self determination in our ancestral homeland. However, I find it difficult to reconcile myself with a conceptualization of Jewishness that contradicts both the Jewish values I grew up with and the progressive values I have come to cherish.
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APN/Peace Now in the News: June 19-June 26, 2015

 

Jerusalem Post - June 21, 2015
High Court to debate Peace Now petition to demolish homes of settlers built illegally on Palestinian owned land
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/High-Court-to-debate-demolition-of-homes-in-West-Bank-outpost-406716

 

Haaretz - June 23, 2015
Responding to Peace Now petition, High Court orders government to explain why it would not demolish illegal outpost
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.662557

 

Times of Israel - June 25, 2015
APN among groups opposing BDS law that passed the Senate
http://www.timesofisrael.com/landmark-anti-bds-law-passes-final-senate-legislative-hurdle/

Standing Idly By: IDF Soldiers’ Inaction in the Face of Offenses Perpetrated by Israelis Against Palestinians in the West Bank

Yesh Din (June 21, 2015)
Addresses Israeli soldiers’ practice of standing idly by in the face of crimes committed by Israeli civilians against Palestinians and their property in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), a common practice that is "almost as old as the occupation itself." Read More >

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