Jack Khoury / Haaretz (March 13, 2016)
Summary of Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) poll shows that while support for Abbas wanes, 60%
still support a two-state solution, 54% of West Bank Palestinians oppose the stabbing attacks on Israelis, and
more than half of Palestinians felt ISIS's actions hurt their cause. Read More >
Pew Research Center (March 8, 2016)
Pew Research Center poll shows that Israeli and U.S. Jews have different perspectives on the peace process,
settlements, and U.S. support for Israel, as well as different ideas about what is essential to Jewish identity,
with U.S. Jews more likely to see ethics and justice as essential to being Jewish. Read More >
Daniel K. Eisenbud / The Jerusalem Post (March 8, 2016)
Israeli Democracy Institute
poll shows that a clear majority of Israelis (61%) believe Jerusalem is already a divided city. Read More >
Pew Research Center (March 8, 2016)
Pew Research Center poll shows that Israeli society's opinion of the viability of the two-state solution
is divided, and that half of Israeli Jews say the U.S. isn't supportive enough of Israel. It also shows that a
plurality of Israeli Jews (42%) say settlements help Israel's security, which is an increase from the 31% who
reported this opinion in 2013. Read More >
1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. APN Analysis/Commentary on Obama Signing Statement
3. Hearings
4. On the Record
Note: The campaign to legitimize Israeli settlements – through U.S. legislation conflating settlements and Israel – continues. In tandem with this campaign is a steady stream of reports about U.S. policy vis-à-vis settlements and the West Bank since 1967. Many of these reports – either out of incompetence or a deliberate effort to mislead – misrepresent the facts (to say the least). In response to the latest round of factually incorrect reports, on 2/16 APN published: Setting the Record Straight (again) on U.S. Labeling Policy – which includes both analysis and links to all the relevant U.S. government original source documents.
Last week, I received an email from Tikkun Magazine crowing, “Major American Jewish Leader Changes his
Mind About Israel.” Rabbi David Gordis, who has served in an astonishing number of major American Jewish
institutions, reflected on his years of love and advocacy for Israel, and on the rightward trend in Israeli
policies. He wrote, “sadly, after a life and career devoted to Jewish community and Israel, I conclude that in
every important way: Israel has failed to realize its promise for me. A noble experiment, but a failure.”
My heart sank. Many of us engaged in advocacy for Israel no doubt share Rabbi Gordis’ discontent with the
trajectory of public affairs in Israel. Clearly there is reason to be troubled. Extremism has become embedded
throughout every level of Israeli society. The occupation, and the racism that has grown from it, are
alarming.
But, while I am sympathetic to your feelings of near-despair, Rabbi Gordis, I beseech you: don’t give up; Israel
can’t afford to lose you.
Americans for Peace Now / (March 2, 2016)
Briefing call with Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, who discusses the challenges that
make achieving peace difficult, and further advocates for a two-state solution as the only viable option for
resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read More >
On February 24th, Congress sent HR 644, known as the “Customs Bill,” to President Obama's desk. As we has been reporting for the past year, this bill includes a provision that, while ostensibly about countering the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel, is in truth about legitimizing settlements and for the first time in history legislating U.S. support for and defense of Israel's settlement enterprise and the occupation that enables it. The provision achieves this by conflating Israel and the occupied territories, in effect requiring the U.S. to treat both as sovereign Israel.
As long predicted by APN, when President Obama signed HR 644 into law shortly after it reached his desk, he issued a signing statement observing (correctly) that the conflation of Israel and settlements contradicts longstanding U.S. foreign policy and violates the Executive's constitutional foreign policy prerogative, and declaring that this conflation would not be implemented.
Yesterday, Israeli media reported on a blockbuster report alleging that the Obama Administration is lying when it says U.S. policy regarding the labeling of products from West Bank settlements hasn't changed since 1995, and alleging that the policy reiterated last month in a statement issued by the U.S. Customs Service (CBP), in fact, represents a change in U.S. policy.
These allegations rest on a “smoking gun,” unearthed by the intrepid researchers at a right-wing Israeli non-governmental organization called the Legal Forum for Israel, in the form of a 1995 document issued by CBP. The Legal Forum for Israel alleges that the document proves that U.S. labeling policy since 1995, according to which exports from the West Bank cannot be labeled as made in Israel, applied only to those areas of the West Bank under Palestinian self-rule in 1995. The NGO insists that the “reminder” of the policy issued by CBP in January 2016, which stated that labeling rules apply to the entire West Bank, thus clearly represents a (stealth) shift in U.S. policy.
Is this document, in fact, a smoking gun? Not in the slightest.