Yossi Alpher | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (2015)
Book
Review (Brookings) |
CampusBooks
Last week, in an appearance with British Prime Minister Cameron, President Obama laid out -- in the clearest language yet -- the case against Congress pursuing new Iran sanctions at this time. APN wholly concurs with the President's analysis and observations, highlighted below (underlining/bold added by APN).
APN in Southern California is a co-sponsor of the following breakfast program to be held on Wednesday, February 4:
Nice or Necessary? Jewish-Arab People-to-People Programs
Breakfast Program with Joel Braunold, U.S. Director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP)
Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 8:00 a.m.
Lenny's Deli (back room)
2379 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles (at Pico)
Bagel Breakfast: $15 (pay at door)
RSVP to apnwest@peacenow.org or 323-934-3480
Sponsors: Americans for Peace Now, American Friends of Neve Shalom Wahat al Salaam, J Street, Partners for Progressive Israel
==================================
The Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) is a network of
organizations that seek to build a secure just and sustainable peace, and conduct civil society work in conflict
transformation, development, coexistence and cooperative activities on the ground in the Middle East among
Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, and Jews.
There are more than 80 member organizations in ALLMEP, including the Arab-Jewish Village Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam and the bilingual and multicultural Hand in Hand schools, the Jerusalem one recently attacked in a hate crime.
Joel Braunold is the U.S. Director of ALLMEP, after having previously served in leadership roles in London and New York at the ALLMEP member organization PeaceWorks Foundation/OneVoice Movement. He has received the Avi Schaefer Peace Innovation Prize, and his insightful analysis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been published by national and international media outlets, including Ha'aretz.com, the New York Daily News, the Guardian, the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast.
1. Bills & Resolutions
2. Momentum Picking Up for New Iran Sanctions
3. APN on Kirk-Menendez: Support Iran Diplomacy, Oppose New Iran
Sanctions
4. Palestinian Aid in the Crosshairs
5. Hearings
6. Members on the Record
[NOTE: SEE SECTION 2 FOR ANALYSIS OF NEWER VERSION OF DRAFT KIRK-MENENDEZ BILL, CIRCULATING AS OF THIS AFTERNOON]
As anybody who follows Israeli-Palestinian issues knows, on December 31, 2014, after the UN Security Council rejected a Jordanian-backed resolution that would have imposed terms of reference and a timeline for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Palestinian President Abbas did something – not everyone seems clear what – in the international arena. This Q&A looks at what Abbas actually did and did not do, and what U.S. law says about those actions.
|
||||||||||
Recently, many were dismayed to discover (as reported in the
Forward and +972) that
the iconic photo of two young boys, seemingly an Israeli-Jewish child and a Palestinian-Muslim child, was a
posed photo taken for the Canadian magazine Maclean’s.
Yes, that photo was staged, but there's no need to indulge in the despairing laments echoing around the
internet: there are plenty of real pictures, of real people - Palestinian and Israeli (and two
Jewish-Americans, in day five's picture - APN's own Lara Friedman, and in day seven's picture, APN
Founder Mark Rosenblum), Jewish, Christian, and Muslim - working for a brighter future. In the spirit of
Chanukah, we shared a picture a day on Facebook and twitter for each of the eight days of Chanukah - - of
real, genuine partners for peace.
Well, the internet exploded: hundreds of shares, thousands of likes. It seems that there is a hunger for hope.
And, with
your help, we can provide that hope.
This is the work we do
These people are real, these pictures are real
Share
them and join us in
building a peaceful future.
The prospect of a U.N. Security Council vote on parameters and a timeline for Israel-Palestinian negotiations, coming as it does in the lead-up to Israeli elections, is eliciting this tricky argument: “We can’t pressure Israel when Israelis are going to the polls, because it will only help the Right.”
That argument fits neatly into the list of memes that time and time again have been used to justify U.S. inaction in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. Memes like: “We can’t press for peace with the region in upheaval.” “We can’t ask any Israeli prime minister to take action that could destabilize his government.” “This is a losing issue that will cost any president and his party dearly.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the UN Security Council Resolution introduced late Wednesday by Jordan as a unilateral move that would result in “a Hamas takeover of Judea and Samaria.” Foreign Minister Leiberman blasted the resolution as an act of aggression against Israel. Strategic Affairs and Intelligence Minister Steinitz branded it an “act of war.”
What can one conclude except that this resolution is manifestly anti-Israel? It must, for example, reject Israel’s right to exist and endorse a full Palestinian “right of return.” It must deny any Israeli or Jewish claims to Jerusalem and require Israel to leave its security in the hands of its erstwhile enemies. And no doubt it includes text justifying violence and terror against Israel. More broadly, this resolution must seek to impose on Israel a “solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along lines defined unilaterally by the Palestinians. How could Israel respond to such a text with anything less than outrage?
Netanyahu, Leiberman, Steinitz, and others critics of the effort must be hoping that people won’t bother to actually read the text of the resolution, because, in fact, it is nothing of the sort.