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.
--At the White House Hannukah candle-lighting ceremony, outgoing US President Barack Obama spoke of former Israeli president Shimon Peres as an inspiration for the ideals that today seem increasingly distant, as Peres' son, Chemi, lit the candles.*
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APN’s show on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and efforts to resolve it.
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1. Bills & Resolutions
2. AIPAC Touts
Accomplishments in 114th Congress
3. On the Record
And of note from APN this week:
- Press Release: APN Opposes David Friedman's Nomination as US
Ambassador to Israel
- APN explainer: Israel’s settlement “Legalization Bill”: What it
is and what it means
- APN Letter to the Conference of Presidents Protesting
Hanukkah Party Co-Sponsored by Azerbaijan at Trump Hotel
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.
"I’ll never come back to this place."
--A text message that the co-CEO of the Abraham Fund, an Israeli Jewish-Arab co-existence and equality organization, received from Maqsood Ahmed, a co-leader of Muslim Hands organization and who was decorated by Queen Elizabeth for improving interfaith relations. Ahmed wrote it on his way from the Shin Bet holding cell at Ben-Gurion Airport to the airplane after he was held overnight and refused entry to Israel to participate in Muslim Jewish co-existence activities at the invitation of The Abraham Fund.**
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.
--Jewish American writer and feminist activist, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, told Haaretz+ why she made a personal call to 120 friends to donate to Americans for Peace Now after far-right-winger David Friedman was appointed the next US ambassador to Israel. Donations to pro-peace American organizations have risen sharply since the appointment.*