NEW ITEMS 

RECORDING: "Annex and Dispossess: Peace Now's Hagit Ofran on her New Report"

VIDEO and AUDIO RECORDINGS - July 10 Webinar with Peter Beinart - "My Case for Equality" (July 10, 2020)

APN with Progressive Israel Network partners in support of Van Hollen amendment to prevent US funding for illegal annexation (July 10, 2020)

APN Senators to Join Van Hollen Amendment (July 9, 2020)

ACTION ALERT: "Say No To Your Tax Dollars Paying For Illegal Annexation" (July 8, 2020)

Peace Now New Report - Annex and Dispossess: Use of the Absentees’ Property Law (July 7, 2020)

GO TO External Recommended Readings and Resources

GO TO List of Editorials on Annexation

According to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the bulk of his suggested West Bank annexation is making the Jordan Valley (approximately 30% of the West Bank) an integral part of the state of Israel. Netanyahu’s rationale for annexing the Jordan Valley is that it would bolster Israel’s security. In this paper, APN intern Avraham Spraragen explains why annexing the Jordan Valley would hinder Israeli security rather than boost it.

INTRODUCTION

On September 10, 2019, a week before the second of three unprecedented Israeli Knesset elections within a year, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a televised press conference his “intention, after the establishment of a new government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley.”^[1]

In his address to the nation, Netanyahu presented a map that demarcated the proposed swaths of land, constituting 1,236,278 hectares or 22.3 percent of the West Bank, to be annexed.^[2] This unilateral annexation plan, a blatant violation of international law and the possible death knell of a two-state solution, would entail an Israeli absorption of 30 settlements, including 12,778 settlers, as well as of 18 illegal outposts.

Following the third election in March, a unity deal was reached between political rivals Netanyahu and former IDF Chief of Staff turned Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz for the establishment of a new government. Per Clause 29 of the unity deal, the fragile Netanyahu-Gantz government is set to “bring the agreement reached with the United States on the application of sovereignty [in the West Bank] … for the approval of the cabinet and/or the Knesset starting July 1, 2020.”^[3] Days away from this July 1st “deadline” to begin advancing unilateral Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, one of the chief annexation scenarios considered by the Israeli government awaiting a “green light” from U.S. President Donald J. Trump, is a proposal to annex the Jordan Valley.^[4]

The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) has conducted its monthly ‘Israeli Voice Index.’ This index tells us a lot about Israeli opinion on COVID-19. There were 830 respondents to the survey and the questions were conducted in a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew. The respondents are a representative cross-section of Israeli society in terms of age, gender and ethnicity.

One interesting result from this investigation is that when asked how they would rank the government’s performance in handling the pandemic medically on a scale of 1 (very poor) to 10 (excellent), 29% of respondents rated it 10/10:

The Israeli supreme court has been the focus of much media attention recently, most notably for giving the go-ahead to the new coalition government between Netanyahu and Gantz. This decision was undoubtedly a great disappointment and a blow to Israeli democracy, allowing a man with three charges of corruption to serve at the highest level of government. However, there have been some smaller human rights victories in the courts recently surrounding the coronavirus.

Each country has its own unique challenges to deal with when it comes to combating the coronavirus due to the physical, social and economic make-up of the state. Therefore, comparing countries is never a like-for-like scenario but it can be useful in determining what actions are useful and harmful in the response. The UAE, Japan and Austria all have a similar number of recorded cases to Israel (16,289 cases), so what can be learned from them as Israel begins to reopen?

While you, our loyal supporters, never cease to amaze me, I am overwhelmed by your continuing support during this difficult time imposed upon us all by the Coronavirus.

We wish you and your loved ones good health and safekeeping. Our staff and board appreciate your response to the efforts we have made to deal with our new reality. From participating in briefing calls, reading News Nosh, listening to our podcasts, and more, it is all recognition of how much you care about our organization and the issues we deal with every day.

Our Passover appeal below was written, for the mail, before this calamity befell us. Letty’s message of not giving up in the face of all the realities we have to deal with still resonates.

Please read this letter. Do so in recognition that APN faces its battles head-on. As the letter says, APN had challenges even before the Coronavirus.

This is a tough time for all of us, and the demands placed upon you are considerable. However, APN’s financial obligations continue, including, among others, our support of our Shalom Achshav colleagues in Israel.

Therefore, I pledge to match your contributions up to an aggregate of $10,000. I’ve done this before and do so again to, hopefully, encourage each of you to give what you can. [Update 4-13-20: $5,000 remains on this matching offer. Halfway there -- let's make it happen!] 

I wish you health and strength during this Passover and Easter season, as we continue to battle the Coronavirus. And, I again appreciate the encouragement you continually give us.

Sincerely,

Jim

James B. Klutznick, Chair of the APN Board

See Intro Note and Matching Donation Offer from Jim Klutznick, Chair of the APN Board

"Now more than ever!" "It’s five minutes to midnight!" "You must act now!"

That’s how many fundraising letters begin. I understand the good intentions behind those words but to me they sound like pandering, as if the only way to inspire support for an important, worthwhile cause is to play to panic, desperation, and crisis.

Where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is concerned, it’s obvious that things are bad, and, given the outrageous one-sided terms proposed by the so called “peace plan” proposed by Trump and endorsed by Netanyahu, things are unlikely to improve in the near future. Yet, if you’ve been following the situation in the Middle East as long as I have, you‘ve seen worse—wars and terror attacks, for instance—and you know that there are bound to be uncountable “Now more than ever” moments to come, until sanity and fairness return the parties to the negotiating table.

In the meantime, Americans for Peace Now is doing the hardest work of all, the work of staying the course, educating people on what’s at stake, monitoring the facts on the ground, and continuing the struggle for peace, no matter how desperate the circumstances or how hostile the political climate.

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.

Israel's Nation-State Law was approved amidst much controversy, both within Israel and abroad, particularly among American Jews. Given its status as one of Israel's Basic Laws, the closest thing Israel has to a Constitution, the law is particularly consequential. Here are a number of resources on the law, its ramifications, and reactions to it.