As part of an ongoing series, APN ran this  message in the Washington Jewish Week and the Baltimore Jewish Times from Major General (res.) Gadi Shamni, a former military secretary to the Prime Minister, former military attaché to the U.S., and top commander of IDF forces in the West Bank .

You can support additional ads by donating here.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

This week, Alpher discusses where Israel positioned itself in the Middle East during the outgoing year; how the Israel-US relationship appears to have suffered; how events in the surrounding Middle East affected the mood of Israelis; how the so-called “lone wolf intifada” affected Israelis; and the prospects for progress between Israel and the Palestinians in the year ahead .

Back in April 2016, the New York Times published an oped I authored regarding President Obama and the United Nations Security Council. The genesis of that oped was the assertion - made repeatedly by policy experts and pundits, by journalists, by Jewish leaders, by members of Congress, etc - that no U.S. president has ever gone against Israel in the UN Security Council.

Over the weekend, more than 70 American intellectuals - including members of APN's Board of Directors such as Michael Walzer and Edward Witten - published an Open Letter in the New York Review of Books calling for a targeted boycott of “all goods and services from all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, and any investments that promote the Occupation.”

APN warmly welcomes and endorses this letter. Its message echoes and validates the position that APN has proudly advocated for years, often as a lone voice of sanity in the pro-Israel Jewish community. You can find out more about our position - expressed in policy statements, opeds, advocacy documents, and more - here.

Like the signers of the Open Letter, we oppose boycotts of Israel. And like the signers of the Open Letter, we have long argued for activism targeting settlements and the occupation, which we believe to be an important and effective way to fight the occupation and fortify the foundations of a two-state solution.

We are pleased and encouraged to see that this position is gaining greater traction in the American intellectual community, especially given the fact that the conflation of Israel and the settlements is becoming dangerously mainstream. Now more than ever, we must fight to uphold the distinction between Israel and the settlements. We must reject the creeping legitimization of settlements. And, with our rhetoric and our activism, we must target the pro-settlement and anti-peace policies that fuel the occupation and endanger the two-state solution. This Open Letter is an important step in doing all of those things, and we commend its authors and signers. We also hope their action will inspire others to act as well - click here for some actions that can be taken today to fight settlements and the occupation.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) mourns the death of Shimon Peres, the former president and prime minister of the State of Israel, an icon of Israel's founding generation, a visionary of peace and security for Israel, a dedicated leader who led Israel through wars and in the quest for peace.