PAST ACTION - Tell President Obama: Stand Up for Peace, Stand Up to Bibi

obama-and-bibi-482x252Update: this action, now closed, ran in March 2015. 

The recent Israeli elections definitively unmasked the real Benjamin Netanyahu.

  • Netanyahu cynically campaigned as an adversary of President Obama
  • Netanyahu brazenly ruled out a two-state peace agreement with the Palestinians
  • Netanyahu flagrantly incited racism and intolerance in the Israeli body politic
  • Netanyahu shamelessly stoked divisions within the American Jewish community
  • Netanyahu recklessly turned Israel into a partisan issue in Congress

 

Tell President Obama:  Stand up to Netanyahu.

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APN Legislative Round-Up: March 20, 2015

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March 23, 2015 - Israeli election aftermath: US-Israel relations

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This week, Alpher discusses lessons learned by Israel's center-left following its defeat to Netanyahu; Low likelihood of a Netanyahu-Herzog unity government; The state of US-Israel relations following Netanyahu's statements on the two-state solution and on Arab citizens' voting. 

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News Nosh 03.22.15

APN's daily news review from Israel
Sunday March 22, 2015

Quote of the day:
"Don’t cry when your children die in the next military campaign...You again elected the leader who promises us death and not life, fear and not hope."
--Israeli author Yehonatan Geffen wrote on Facebook following the elections and on Friday he was attacked at his home.**

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News Nosh 03.23.15

APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday March 23, 2015

Quote of the day:
"Welcome to the nightmare that we woke up to...It has become dangerous here. We are on a slippery slope. The Prime Minister must stop this."
--Left-wing Israeli singer Ahinoam Nini said after being verbally attacked upon her arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport.**

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News Nosh 03.24.15

APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday March 24, 2015

Quote of the day:
"We won the votes of 90% of Israeli Arabs, but Netanyahu wants to cherry pick." 
--Chairman of the Joint (Arab) List, Ayman Oudeh, said after Netanyahu 'apologized' to Israeli Arabs, but didn't invite the people they elected, i.e. the targets of his race-baiting call on Election Day.**

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lara-at-JStreet320x265There were only a handful of Israeli settlers beyond the Green Line in 1968, when Lyndon Johnson became the first American president to express opposition to settlements in the West Bank. Now, despite protest from every subsequent administration, there are more than 350,000 Israelis living in the West Bank and 200,000 in East Jerusalem. President Johnson’s prediction that settlements would “prejudice a peace settlement” has come true, as the dramatic rise of the settler movement—in both numbers and political power—has complicated repeated efforts to achieve a two-state solution.

In this panel at J Street's 2015 conference, APN's Lara Friedman, together with other experts on American and European policy explored what steps can be taken to halt further settlement growth and entrenchment, and discuss the political and policy implications of American and European initiatives—from discouragement of Israeli settlement subsidies to the labeling or boycott of settlement goods.

Watch to see  Lara Friedman, together with Michael Cohen of the Boston Globe and Alon Sachar of the US State Department, with Steve Krubiner, J Street's Chief of staff,  moderating.  Aviva Meyer, Deputy Chair of APN, introduces the participants. Session begins at 10:35.

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APN's Ori Nir will be speaking on a panel discussion with Gabriel Scheinmann at Goucher Hillel, 7pm on March 25th

 

 

 

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News Nosh 03.25.15

APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday March 25, 2015

Quote of the day:
"I don't think that a student can reach deep into the Israeli educational system when 20 percent of the students have an ethos, a specific story, and he does not know that story."
Former education minister Shay Piron said he supported teaching the Nakba - the Arabic word for "catastrophe," which the Palestinians use to refer to Israel's War of Independence - to all Israeli students.**

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Middle East Amendments in the Senate Budget “Vote-a-Rama” - UPDATED 3/26

This week the Senate is dealing with S. Con. Res. 11. "An original concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2016 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2017 through 2025."  This annual exercise is nicknamed a “vote-a-rama,” with members permitted to offer as many amendments as they like on pretty much any topic, so long as they append the magic words at the end of every amendment: “provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit over either the period of the total of fiscal years 2016 through 2020 or the period of the total of fiscal years 2016 through 2025.”

In past years, we have not seen a lot of Middle East provisions offered to the annual budget resolution – possibly because Senators prefer to attach Middle East-related amendments to binding, must-pass legislation like the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, or the Defense Authorization bill; or because there were stricter rules governing amendments; or just maybe because at no time in recent memory has the Senate (or some of its members) behaved in such a reckless and at times nutty-as-a squirrel-turd manner as is the case today.

In this context, it comes as no surprise to see lots of Middle East-related amendments being offered to S. Con. Res. 11.  Below is a summary of these amendments – it will be updated if more are submitted.  It should be kept in mind that some/most/all of these may never be voted on and that in any case, they are non-binding; however, they are important nonetheless as statements of congressional intent and as efforts to corner members into taking a more consequential vote on binding legislation later.

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