Dr. Gail Weigl, APN volunteer and a professor of art history, reviewed Dan Ephron's new book on Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, published on the 20th anniversary of the murder that changed Israel. 

Dan Ephron, Killing A King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel (New York and London, 2015), 257 pages.  $27.95

A heartbreaking chronicle of the circumstances leading to and following from the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Killing A King is a brilliant and comprehensive analysis of the quest for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and of the ultra-Orthodox opposition to that quest. While the subtitle, The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, might sound grandiose to some, Ephron in fact convincingly proves the case that Rabin’s assassination catalyzed the remaking of an Israel increasingly dominated today by right-wing political and religious extremists. In his telling, even-handed though he may be, they are the primary if not the only villains of the piece.

This past Saturday, October 31st, Peace Now and other groups organized a rally in honor of the memory of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Attended by more than 100,000 Israelis, the rally was held in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv where the late PM was assassinated by a right-wing extremist.

Speakers included US President Barack Obama on a pre-recorded video feed and former President Bill Clinton, who attended the rally.

President Clinton, who considered Rabin a personal friend, and coined the phrase shalom chaver (goodbye, friend) immediately following the murder, said: "[Rabin] refused to give up his dream of peace in the face of violence . . . The next step will be determined by whether you decide that Yitzhak Rabin was right, that you have to share the future with your neighbors ... that the risks for peace are not as severe as the risk of walking away from it. Those of us who loved him and love your country are praying that you will make the right decision."

President Obama said: "In these difficult days for Israel, for Palestinians, for the region, Yitzhak's life, his dream, inspire us still." Obama added, "A bullet can take a man's life, but his spirit, his dream of peace, will never die."

Click here  to watch video clips of the remarks by President Obama and former President Clinton.

Rejecting any claim that settlements play a part in the current violence, Netanyahu has adopted data showing he's built less than his predecessors. But don't believe the statistics.

Author Dan Ephron, whose new book documents the events that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the assassination’s aftermath, was APN’s guest on a briefing call on November 2, 2015.

In Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, Ephron tells the parallel stories of Rabin and his assassin, Yigal Amir, during the two years leading up to the murder, and sets the scene to the two decades that followed.

Ephron is an award-winning writer, who has served as the Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek and the Daily Beast, and now lives in New York City.

Update: this action, now closed, ran in November 2015. 

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gave his life in pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Help us honor his legacy and keep his memory alive today by taking the following actions:

• Click here to add your name to our joint statement (APN together with J Street,the New Israel Fund, Ameinu, T’ruah and Partners for Progressive Israel), Living Rabin's Legacy, which will be delivered by hand to Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer to pass on to the Israeli government.

• Click here to urge your Senators and your Representative to co-sponsor resolutions honoring the life, legacy, and example of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the twentieth anniversary of his death – in the Senate, S. Res. 299 (introduced by Sen. Feinstein, D-CA); in the House, H. Res. 502 (introduced by Rep. Ellison, D-MN), and H. Res. 513 (introduced by Rep. Engel, D-NY).

• Please join us for a briefing call today, November 4th, at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time) with the leaders of APN, the New Israel Fund, J Street, Ameinu and T’ruah.   The call, on the anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, will bring together the five organizations to help unite progressive Americans in a solemn demand for a peaceful and democratic Israel.

A recent article in Foreign Affairs by Brookings fellow Natan Sachs is getting a lot of attention: Why Israel waits: Anti-Solutionism as a strategy. (Full disclosure: Sachs is a friend and someone for whom I have great professional respect.)

The piece offers some valuable insights into how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and those around him justify their approach on national security issues. However, the analysis suffers from an important omission with respect to the Israeli government's approach to the Palestinians, and offers a policy recommendation that, if adopted, would be disastrous.

Barbara Green has been a volunteer for Americans for Peace Now for many years. She lives in Washington, DC.

If we look to the Torah for lessons in how we are to live our lives today, we're hard-pressed to find it in Vayeitze.  Rather this is a series of lessons in duplicity, trickery, bad faith between kinsmen, and ultimately the creation of a physical boundary between them which neither is ever again to cross. Laban tricks Jacob, Rachel tricks Laban, Jacob tricks Laban.  In the end the 'heroes-heroines," our ancestors, narrowly escape with their lives and flocks intact.

Speaking at Washington’s Center for American Progress, Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked about his government’s West Bank settlement construction policies. His replies were littered with falsehoods and misrepresentations. 

Here are the facts:

Washington, DC - Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister-organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in welcoming the European Union’s new guidelines for labeling products made in West Bank settlements. 

The absurd notion that, during his current trip to the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now signed on to a two-state solution after only eight months ago saying that he would never allow a Palestinian state to emerge is material for George Orwell’s book, 1984.

The recent outbreak of violence in the streets of Israel and Palestine is a wake-up call to all those who seek peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The United States holds a key to bringing the violence to an end and putting the parties on the road to realizing, what the U.S. and virtually every other nation in the world has called for, the implementation of two states, Israel and Palestine. We call on President Obama to act now and recognize the state of Palestine, a process started by Republican President George W. Bush. This single act is urgently needed in order to provide the next U.S. president with a platform that places both Israel and Palestine on equal footing, at least in terms of formal U.S. recognition.

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