Progressive Israel Network Opposes Netanyahu’s Annexation Pledge
Responding to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of his intent to extend Israeli sovereignty over large parts of the West Bank, the Progressive Israel Network released the following statement:
Americans for Peace Now calls on the Trump administration, Congress, and fellow American Jewish organizations to act to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from carrying out his declared intention to annex wide swaths of the occupied West Bank immediately after next week’s Israeli elections.
Such a step would be an existential threat to Israel’s security and wellbeing. Particularly if endorsed by the United States, it would likely destroy future efforts for a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace, upon which Israel’s future as a democracy and a Jewish national home relies.
Americans for Peace Now is outraged by President Trump's statement suggesting that the vast majority of American Jews are disloyal, and strongly condemns it. This outrageous, anti-Jewish slur fans the flames of Jew hatred in the US and puts American Jews in danger.
Trump's comment also poisons US-Israel relations, attempting to shatter bipartisan US support for Israel's security and wellbeing, for Trump's own political gain.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the decision of Israel's government to deny two US members of Congress entry to Israel. APN calls on the government of Israel to reverse its decision.
For the government of Israel to deny entry to these two US elected officials is outrageous and self-defeating for several reasons:
Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN) and Ilhan Omar (D_MI) are democratically elected members of the US Congress, which represents the people of the United States, and is Israel's staunchest supporting institution, bar none. Snubbing them is not only an affront to these two politicians but a blow to the institution and to Israel's relations with the American people.
The European Union issued the following statement on August 6th, 2019
Bruxelles, 06/08/2019
Israeli authorities have approved the advancement of well over 2.000 housing units in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The European Union's position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged: all settlement activity is illegal under international law and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace.
In the face of the Trump administration's apparent abandonment of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Americans for Peace Now (APN) urges Congress and presidential candidates to commit to supporting two states, and to reject Trump's departure from this long-held principal US policy objective.
Trump's extremist, maverick pro-settler envoys, David Friedman
and Jason Greenblatt, aren't resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They're fueling it - and Congress
should investigate
With ten-pound hammers in their hands and ecstatic religious-nationalist zeal in their hearts, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and White House Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt stood underneath the most religiously volatile place on earth, and smashed a wall – and with it, any last semblance of reasonable U.S. policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in strongly condemning yesterday's participation by senior Trump administration officials in the opening of a tunnel dug in East Jerusalem by the extremist settler organization Elad. The tunnel is under the Palestinian village of Silwan, located on the slope of the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif, one of the most religiously volatile places in the world.
The plan released by the White House this weekend to stimulate the Palestinian economy is amateurish, disingenuous, and dangerous.
Under normal circumstances, Americans for Peace Now (APN), which has been advocating for four decades for Israeli-Palestinian peace, would welcome a fifty-billion dollar plan prepared by the White House to stimulate the Palestinian economy. But nothing about the current circumstances makes Trump's so-called "Peace to Prosperity" plan worthy of serious consideration. Nothing about this plan makes it a source of hope for advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace. Rather, the plan undermines decades of US diplomatic efforts to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Last week, an Israeli armed with nothing but an avocado robbed two banks in the southern city of Beer Sheva. He told the terrified tellers he was holding a hand grenade. And although the average Israeli eats more avocados than anyone elsewhere in the world besides Mexico, Chile, and Peru, the tellers failed to realize that they were being held up by a piece of fruit.
In a couple of weeks, politicians and business people will gather in Manama, Bahrain for an economic “workshop” to raise money for the Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian “peace plan” — the so-called “Ultimate Deal” or “Deal of the Century” — which is still under wraps.
Why all the quotation marks? Because Team Trump, the three people the President has appointed to lead this effort, knows that what they have in their hand is an avocado: inedible and hard today, putrid tomorrow.
(This piece originally appeared in the Forward HERE)
