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.
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.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the murder of a young Israeli woman, Ori Ansbacher (19), in Jerusalem last week by a Palestinian assailant, who has been arrested and who has reenacted the crime.
Who should count as Jewish in America?
What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel?
These are the questions my dear friend Bob Mnookin addresses in his new book, The Jewish American Paradox.
I have known Bob since we were both 18 ( don’t even ask when that was) as I was his future wife Dale’s roommate as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan.
Before I continue, I should introduce myself to you. I'm Aviva Meyer, Vice Chair of the Americans for Peace Now Board of Directors.
In addition to my role on the Board, I have been volunteering as APN's interim CEO while we complete a strategic planning process, after which we will hire a permanent CEO to replace Debra DeLee, who retired recently.
I never thought I would find myself doing this after retiring from The New Israel Fund, but it’s a natural place for me to be. Like about 70% of American Jews, I am emotionally attached to Israel. Like many of the Jews that Bob describes, I am troubled by Israel’s continued military occupation of the West Bank and its discriminatory treatment of Palestinians. As an activist with Americans for Peace Now, I stand with the majority of Israelis, Palestinians, and American Jews described by Bob who favor a two-state solution as the best way to preserve Israel as both a democracy and a Jewish state.
Washington, DC – Following the Senate’s passage today of Senate Bill 1 (S.1), including the so-called Combating BDS Act, the bill will be transmitted to the House of Representatives.
APN strongly urges the House not to follow in the footsteps of the Senate. By blocking this legislation, the House will reject attempts to turn Israel into a partisan wedge issue, protect free speech, and highlight the distinction between sovereign Israel and West Bank settlements.
APN rejects BDS against Israel. APN believes that as a tactic to challenge Israeli policies that are inconsistent with Israeli-Palestinian peace, BDS is the wrong approach. We view it as misguided, ineffective, and counterproductive. APN advocates boycotting settlement products and recognizes the legitimacy and potential value of other activism directly and narrowly targeted at settlements and the occupation. APN’s policy on BDS is here.
Despite our opposition to BDS, APN has opposed S.1 since it was introduced, and called on our activists to ask their senators to reject it.
As we have stated previously, this legislation was designed to be a political trap. By bundling security aid for Israel with controversial legislation that violates civil liberties, the bill sets up senators to be labeled as “insufficiently pro-Israel” if they refuse to endorse the latter. In order to score political points, this bill will further erode the historic bipartisan consensus around a strong US-Israel relationship.
APN’s opposition to the Combating BDS Act is two-fold. First, this legislation erases the distinction between sovereign Israel and its settlements in the occupied West Bank by treating boycotts of the two as if these entities were one and the same. Second, it tramples on First Amendment rights by encouraging states to punish Americans who engage in boycotts.
Federal district courts have issued injunctions in cases brought by the ACLU, ruling that laws in Kansas and Arizona violate the constitutionally protected right to boycott.
APN calls on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to advance legislation authorizing security assistance for Israel, without tethering it to legislation that is both anti-peace and anti-democratic.
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.
1) Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA): Time is running out for a fix prior to the Friday, February 1 implementation date. ATCA will end US support for Israeli-Palestinian security coordination, eliminate the last official channel between the US government and the Palestinian Authority, and prevent the future resumption of US development assistance to Palestinians. Read the op-ed in The Hill by Debra Shushan on why Congress must act and what it can do.
2) Senate Bill 1, including the Combating BDS Act (CBA), was advanced following two votes this week. Yesterday's vote, which paves the way for introduction of amendments, was 76-22. (Find out how your senators voted here.)
Some senators spoke passionately of their opposition to CBA, both on First Amendment grounds and because of its conflation of settlements with sovereign Israel. In particular, these remarks by Sen. Chris Van Hollen are worth your view.
Full article published in The Hill on January 28,
2019
In a perversely ironic turn, a law intended to aid American victims of international terrorist attacks will strike a serious blow to counterterrorism cooperation that keeps Israelis (and Americans visiting Israel) safe.
The Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA) will take effect on February 1. Unless it is adequately amended or repealed before then, the law will damage Israeli national security and U.S. foreign policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Time is short, and Congress must take action.
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.
Two weeks ago, on January 8th, Palestinian residents of the tiny southern Hebron
Hills village of al-Tuwani woke up to find some of their olive trees cut down and “revenge” and “death to
Arabs” spray-painted in Hebrew on walls and rocks.
This was by no means an isolated incident. For decades, extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank have vandalized Palestinian property and attacked (even murdered) Palestinians themselves. But in recent years, vandalizing Palestinian property has become routine. And trees, particularly olive trees, are the perpetrators’ favorite target. In 2018 alone, according to the United Nations, some 7,200 Palestinian trees were damaged. Most were olive trees.
Extremist settlers intentionally target olive trees. They know that in Palestinian culture, the olive tree enjoys an almost sacred status as a symbol of Palestinians’ attachment to their land. These settlers also know that olive trees, which cover about half of the West Bank’s agricultural land, are a source of income for some 80,000 Palestinian families.
Today is Tu Bishvat, a beautiful holiday in which Jews plant trees and cherish the fruit of the
land. But in the West Bank, while they plant trees in their settlements, extremist settlers destroy
thousands of olive trees belonging to their Palestinian neighbors. Why? Because they hope that by
terrorizing Palestinians, they will eventually drive them out.
Israel’s Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) movement long ago concluded that settlements are the chief obstacle to a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Shalom Achshav’s Settlement Watch Project researches, documents, and publicizes information and analysis on West Bank settlement activity, and often takes the Israeli government and the settlers to court to hold them accountable for illegal actions.
Your donation will help us and our
Israeli colleagues at Peace Now confront the settlement movement and show Israelis and Palestinians
alike that pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans strongly condemn the extremist settlers’ violent actions.
