Last fall, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz declared that six prominent Palestinian rights groups were “terrorist organizations.” These civil society groups, Al Haq; Addameer; Defense For Children International-Palestine; Bisan; the Union of Agricultural Work Committees; and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, work directly with Palestinian women and girls, children, low-income families, prisoners, and civil society activists, providing direct services and monitoring human rights abuses by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities.

Today, Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) led 29 of their colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling on the administration to use every diplomatic tool at its disposal to ensure that Israel does not further advance plans to build settlements in E-1. These plans have been called “doomsday settlements” because implementing them would pose an irreconcilable challenge to a lasting peaceful solution between Israel and the Palestinians by threatening the territorial contiguity necessary for a viable Palestinian state.

As Yair Lapid becomes Israel's prime minster today, APN congratulates him and urges him to take this opportunity to show the world what an Israel under his leadership looks like.

Israel’s outgoing “change government” featured a creative makeup and some new domestic policies, but little change with regard to Israel’s relations with the Palestinians.

What was the Bennett government’s policy on West Bank settlement construction? What can we expect from Yair Lapid, the incoming prime minister? What has the outgoing government done in addressing other aspects of the conflict? What role will this issue play in the upcoming elections campaign? What does yet another election campaign mean for Israel's anti-occupation movement?

To answer these and other questions, APN hosted a webinar Peace Now’s acting executive director, Dr. Dana Mills, on Wednesday, July 6th at 11:00 Eastern Time. Mills elaborated on Peace Now’s new report, which documents and analyzes the West Bank settlements policy of the outgoing government.

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.

Last fall we wrote to you warning of Israel’s plans to build in the area known as E-1. These plans have been called “doomsday settlements” because they  pose an irreconcilable challenge to a lasting peaceful solution between Israel and the Palestinians by threatening the territorial contiguity necessary for a viable Palestinian state. We asked you to contact your member of Congress to urge them to push the Biden administration to weigh in and use diplomatic pressure to halt Israel’s approval process of E-1 settlements. With your help, we bolstered congressional support for United States opposition to E-1 settlement construction and the Biden administration successfully pressured the Israeli government. In a rare move, the Israeli government publicly acknowledged the United States’ message and indefinitely postponed these plans.

Unfortunately, Israel has recently announced plans to move ahead with E-1 settlements once again, scheduling the final hearing on the objections to the project for July 18th, just days after the President’s planned visit.

We need your help again, and we’re running out of time. Congress must reiterate its opposition to settlement construction in E-1. The Biden administration must use every diplomatic tool at its disposal to prevent these devastating plans and ensure that this time, the message sticks.

Click here to ask your member of Congress to join Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in urging the State Department to say no to settlement construction in E-1:

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Americans for Peace Now welcomes a new Senate letter urging the Biden administration to launch an independent investigation into the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist killed while reporting for Al-Jazeera in the West Bank town of Jenin on May 11th.

Led by Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), 24 Senators are adding their voices to last month’s request by 57 Members of the House of Representatives that the State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) launch an investigation into Ms. Abu Akleh’s killing.

Q: What happened? 

A: Last week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister/Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced that they would dissolve the government. This Wednesday, the Israeli Knesset voted unanimously to dissolve the current governing coalition, bringing Israelis to their fifth election in less than four years. The government is expected to be officially dissolved early next week. 

Q: Why?

A: There are a few different explanations for this government’s failure to fulfill its four-year term, but all of them boil down to the fragility of the current coalition as the result of its ideological diversity. The coalition was initially formed by eight disparate parties in a bid to oust former Prime Minister Netanyahu from power. The common cause was enough to bring ideological rivals together, but the cracks quickly started to show. 

As violence flared across Israel and the West Bank this spring, tensions within the coalition became increasingly evident: nothing brings out the irreconcilable differences between left-wing and right-wing ideology in Israel like flares of violence. Additionally, two right-wing Members of Knesset recently defected from the governing coalition, under pressure from Netanyahu’s opposition. These surprising departures did away with the governing coalition’s narrow majority, leaving the Knesset with an even 60-60 split between the governing coalition and the opposition. 

The final straw came this month, with a vote on extending by another five years the regulations that apply Israeli civilian law to Israeli citizens who live in the occupied West Bank (settlers), while maintaining military law over their Palestinian neighbors. An Arab-Israeli Meretz MK, Rinawie Zoabi, left the coalition over this vote, leaving it in a 59-61 minority, though she ultimately returned. Several Palestinian members of the coalition refused to vote to maintain this system of inequality, and as a result, Prime Minister Bennett (himself a former leader of the settler movement) to dissolve the government, in an effort to delay the final vote on this bill. 

Q: After three other recent government dissolutions, why is this one notable?

A: While there are many factors that contributed to the current government’s collapse, it is undeniable that the Occupation was the final straw. It was simply impossible for a coalition with settlers, left-wingers, and Palestinian citizens of Israel to come to an agreement about the apartheid-like situation in the West Bank, whereby Israelis and Palestinians live under two different legal codes. Often, Israeli politicians try to dismiss the issue of the Occupation, suggesting that it is not as important as other matters plaguing the country, and therefore can wait to be solved. This government’s dissolution reaffirms what we at APN already knew: Even if you try to evade it, as this outgoing coalition tried to do, the Occupation will come back to haunt you. It is the chief problem plaguing Israel. It cannot and should not be put on hold. It must be addressed.   

Q: What happens next?

A: When the government is officially dissolved, current Minister of Foreign Affairs and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid will replace Bennett as the Prime Minister. Lapid is a member of the centrist Yesh Atid party. His rotating premiership agreement with Bennett was one of the chief conditions for the current coalition. This arrangement will last until elections are held and a new government is formed, with the elections likely in November. 

Q: Will Netanyahu return to power at the next election?

A: According to four public opinion polls conducted on Tuesday, neither the pro-Netanyahu bloc nor the current coalition parties are projected to have a majority to form a new coalition government. That being said, Netanyahu is the clear frontrunner. Yes, you read that correctly: a plurality of Israelis (48% according to one of the polls) currently consider Netanyahu to be their best candidate for Prime Minister, despite the fact that he is currently on trial for corruption.

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.