Following statements by aides to President-elect Donald Trump regarding his wish to move America’s Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Americans for Peace Now (APN) is urging Trump and members of his transition team to avoid controversial, inflammatory statements on this sensitive foreign policy question.
News from Peace Now:
According to media reports, a compromise has been reached between Prime Minister Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett and
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit regarding the relocation of the Amona settlers. The solution agreed between the
three, based on media reports, includes the evacuation of Amona and the relocation of the Amona settlers to four
plots (number 28, 29, 30, 38 as can be seen in the map below) in a nearby hill on absentees' property
(abandoned property) through a renewable two year lease. These lands are private lands and their use for the
purpose of settlement is contrary to previous legal opinions of the State. As shown in previous cases, such as that
of Migron, the temporary lease could quickly become permanent and allow for the establishment of a new official
settlement on private Palestinian lands. To read a Peace Now position paper on this issue click here.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) is alarmed by President-elect Donald Trump's choice of David Friedman to be the United States' next ambassador to Israel. Friedman's choice sends an alarming message about the Trump administration's role in advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Rejecting a government proposal to peacefully move to an adjacent plot, the settlers of Amona, who stole privately-owned Palestinian land to establish an illegal outpost, are vowing to fight. Amona’s forty families – reinforced by thousands of zealous settlers – are hunkering down for a confrontation with law enforcement officials, which could take place as early as tomorrow night.
The settlers are being removed from Amona after Peace Now, together with the Palestinian land-owners, won a petition to Israel's High Court. The settlers promised that they will "only" passively resist the eviction, but past experience shows that their passive resistance quickly and easily turns into violence. Graffiti sprayed in Amona promising "Death to the Policemen” serves as an indication of the settlers' intentions. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be violent. It's going to be bloody. Not because Israel's police and the IDF want that, but because that's the way the settlers want it to be.
As of April 1, 2017, the up-to-date version of this table is found here
In 2014, opponents of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel began promoting legislation in various U.S. states denouncing the BDS movement. In 2015, these efforts shifted/expanded to mirror efforts in the U.S. Congress to hijack concerns about BDS against Israel in order to pass legislation mandating that Israeli settlements be treated, in effect, as part of sovereign Israel.
On December 16 2016, APN held a briefing call with Senator George Mitchell and Alon Sachar.
Senator George Mitchell and Alon Sachar are the authors of the newly published book "A Path to Peace: A Brief
History of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations and a Way Forward in the Middle East."
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 whether President-elect Trump's selection of David Friedman as US ambassador to Israel will be the "game-changer from hell;" what happens if the embassy is really moved to Jerusalem; what should Trump be doing about the embassy; and how the ambassadorial appointment and the Jerusalem embassy issues factor into the existing divides and conflicts within world Jewry.
Published December 19, 2016 (Updated January 25, 2017)
Much has been written about the views of David Friedman, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee as the next U.S. Ambassador to Israel. We have compiled this collection of quotes from his articles and speeches, so people can better understand and judge Mr. Friedman, based entirely on his own words (downloadable pdf of this document is available here).
- Rejecting U.S. policy in support of peace efforts/two-state solution
- Attacking liberal U.S. Jews (as kapos, etc)
- Accusing President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry of anti-Semitism
- Attacking Hillary Clinton & Bill Clinton
- Other positions of note (pro-Putin/Assad; pro-quashing campus activism on Israel, attacking the New York Times, etc.)
Rabbi Jonah Rank is the Maskil ("Teacher of tradition") at Shaar Shalom Synagogue in Halifax,
Nova Scotia. Rabbi Rank was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2015.
When the humorist Dave Barry released his book Dave Barry’s Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book in 1987, he might not have foreseen that, just three decades later, the United States would have become such a major player in promoting fact-free political discourse. The low bar of entry that permits most Americans access to the internet and the only slightly higher bar that permits most Americans to create web content of any kind have helped bring us to where we are today. When reading articles shared on digital media, if the facts don’t sound like the facts we’ve previously heard, we might ask if this news is real or not: Was it perhaps created from a fake-news website? Is this article actually based on found facts? Is this publication the eloquence of a gullible writer mistaking The Onion for news? Is this piece of journalism simply a collection of conspiracy theories all rooted in a series of truth-contorting tweets?
At this time of year, both Christians and Jews celebrate the triumph of light over darkness. This year, Christmas and Hanukkah overlap. We celebrate the light, count our blessings, and wish each other a happy new year.
This time of year also features commitment and resolution. In Hebrew, the word hanukkah means dedication or rededication.