1. Bills & Resolutions, & Letters
2. SFRC Approves David Friedman (Party-Line Vote)
3. Hearings
4. On the Record

Note from Lara Friedman to Round-Up readers: As some people may have already heard, on April 1, 2017 I will be leaving Americans for Peace Now to take up a new position as the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. But have no fear: APN will continue its important and incredibly effective work going forward. If you are not signed up already, I encourage you to sign up today for APN’s Weekly Update and daily Israeli press summary. And if you don’t already know him, now would be a very good time to meet my brilliant APN colleague Ori Nir.

And also, have no fear: in my new capacity at FMEP, and with the agreement of APN, I will continue to publish the Round-Up (I just can’t give it up – but in the future it will be purely information/analysis, with zero advocacy).  Starting the first week of April, look for the Round-Up posted online at my new home (fmep.org), and cross-posted by APN here, in its usual place at my old home (peacenow.org), alongside the Round-Up archive (which goes back more than a decade).

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 PM Netanyahu's threats to take the country to new elections and their relation to his demand to dismantle a new broadcasting authority; why the broadcasting authority issue is the focus of political tensions; why Netanyahu launched this bombshell while on his way to China; and where the security factor regarding Syria and Lebanon fits in.

When government officials visit Israel and seek the truth about West Bank settlements, they go to one source: Peace Now’s Settlement Watch.

Last week, UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson did just that. While on an official visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories, Johnson met with Peace Now for a briefing on settlements. Lior Amihai, head of Settlement Watch, explained the extent to which settlements damage prospects for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Former Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo today joined a slew of Israeli Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs who lambaste the Israeli government for not taking he initiative to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Pardo spoke today at the Netanya Academic College. Here are some quotes from is speech, translated from the Hebrew original: 

"The Jewish State has one existential threat. It's a time bomb that is ticking all the time and has been ticking for some time. We have chosen to bury our heads in the sand. Deep in the sand. To feed ourselves with alternative facts and escape reality while creating various external threats.

Today (March 22, 2017) the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) published its data on construction starts for 2016. According to the ICBS, during 2016 2,630 housing construction starts took place in West Bank settlements. This is a 40% (39.6%) increase compared to 2015 (1,901).

“Construction inside the settlement “blocs” isn’t a non-issue. When Israeli and Palestinian negotiators start talking seriously about settlements, they won’t be spending a lot of time debating the future of isolated settlements, because these settlements would unquestionably have to be removed under a peace agreement. The real negotiations, the very difficult ones, will be over the so-called “settlement blocs”: their size and contours, the way they will be connected to Israel, and the land swaps that will be used to offset them. This is why settlement expansion in these areas is equally if not more harmful to the two-state solution than construction in the isolated settlements.” (APN’s They Say, We Say”)

They Say, We Say

"Why shouldn’t Israel be able to build in areas that everyone – including the Palestinians - knows Israel will keep in any future peace agreement?"

"Palestinians act as if settlements are everywhere, but the truth is that most of the West Bank - the historic heart of Eretz Yisrael - is still in Palestinian hands. All Israel really insists on keeping is the major built-up areas, the settlement blocs."

"The U.S. should get Israel to agree to limit settlement activity to construction inside the blocs only."

"Why does the Left oppose construction in settlement blocs?"

"The term 'settlement bloc' merely describes an objective reality on the ground."

"Keeping settlement blocs is necessary for Israel’s security."

"Even the Palestinians know that settlement blocs are going to become part of Israel."

"If Israel stops building in settlement blocs its just rewarding anti-peace and anti-Israel extremism like BDS."

"American Jews have no business telling Israel not to build in the settlement blocs."

APN analysis
Op-ed by APN's Ori Nir, 4/20/2017: Israel’s Settlement Blocs Block Prospects For Peace
United Nations Security Council – 10/14/16: Statement by APN’s Lara Friedman
Op-ed by APN’s Lara Friedman and Shalom Achshav’s Hagit Ofran, 5/16/08: Settlement Stumbling Blocs
Settlements in Focus 5/12/08: Settlement Bloc(kage)s on the Road to Peace"
Lara Friedman in Huffington Post: Bibi’s ‘Anti-Solutionism’ as Cover for ‘Anti-Solution’ (11/4/15) and
Settlement ‘Solutionism’ Is Not the Answer (11/30/15)
Lara Friedman in Foreign Policy 8/31/10: Glib talk about settlements harms peace efforts