Americans for Peace Now (APN) is alarmed at the sharp increase in Palestinian-Israeli violence since the Trump administration released its “vision” for Israeli-Palestinian relations last week.
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.
Peace Now and its allies, with just a few days to organize, held a demonstration in Tel Aviv on
Saturday, Febuary 1st to expose this annexation plan for the trap that it is, appealing to the sanity of fellow
Israelis to see how those peddling this scheme are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public.
APN, through you, helped our Israeli Peace Now partners's by raising funds to put on this emergency rally.
Donations are still be accepted to APN's special fund to help cover the remaining costs. Thank you for your support!
Democracy. Equality. Two States.
Peace. Israel stands on the verge of self-destruction for a fringe ideology which
threatens to snuff out these values and herald a permanent apartheid reality.
Thank you for your support.
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.
Washington, DC – The vision submitted today by Donald Trump's
White House for an alleged final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict deals a severe blow to efforts
to achieve real peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
This vision is not a "peace plan" but rather a scheme, co-authored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, to allow for an immediate annexation of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the entire Jordan Valley. Hours ago, shortly after the Trump "vision" was unveiled, Benjamin Netanyahu's government announced that it will submit to the Knesset an annexation bill this coming Sunday.
This plan is a recipe for disaster, for annexation, for the perpetuation of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, for the perpetuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for misery and bloodshed.
Last Friday, Palestinian community organizer and activist Ali
Abu Awwad gave a stirring speech at an APN cosponsored event held at the Middle East Institute. In
particular, Abu Awwad described his own life story, including being raised by an activist mother who was beaten
and brutalized by Israeli security forces, and participating in the First Intifada, as a desperate and angry boy
picking up stones to confront an overwhelming military force.
The White House is expected to unveil President Trump's "Deal of the Century" for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on January 28th 2020. APN offers the following analysis to help assess Trump's proposal.
How to Assess the Trump Plan
APN does not presume to prescribe a detailed formula for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We appreciate efforts by past US administrations to avoid prescribing or imposing a detailed peace plan. At the same time, we strongly believe that any US-authored peace plan, if it is to have a chance of succeeding, must assert a framework based on several unshakable principles.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) is alarmed at reports regarding the plan that the Trump administration is reportedly planning to unveil next week for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. APN joins its Israeli sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in stating that a so-called peace plan that does not adopt the principle of two states for two peoples – two sovereign, contiguous states living side by side in peace and security within defined, recognized borders – belongs in the trashcan of history.
Since the Trump administration announced its intention to submit a "peace plan" for Israeli-Palestinian peace almost three years ago, APN suggested the following guidelines for assessing the viability of such a plan. Following are our guidelines:
In January 2020, there was a big bruhaha when a Jeopardy
contestant said on the gameshow that the Church of the Nativity was located in Israel. What’s wrong with that?
The Church of the Nativity is in Bethlehem, a town that came under Israeli rule in 1967 and is closely
intertwined with Jewish history since biblical times.
Bethlehem is not in Israel. Rather, it is in the West Bank, which is a territory occupied by Israel but has never been annexed to Israel. Bethlehem, like the other Palestinian towns of the West Bank, it is ruled by the Palestinian Authority, an interim self-government body established in 1994 as a part of an agreement signed by the government of Israel and the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.The government of Israel never applied its sovereignty to any of the Occupied Territories, with the exception of the areas that now make up East Jerusalem. Therefore obviously, the Church of the Nativity is not a part of the State of Israel. Nobody in Israel or anywhere else in the world contests this fact.
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.