Author and Journalist Daniel Rubinstein is Israel’s longest serving Palestinian-affairs correspondent, first with Davar (1967-1990), then with Haaretz (1990-2008) and now with Calcalist, Yedioth Ahronoth’s business daily. He is the author of three books, including The Mystery of Arafat, and The People of Nowhere about the Palestinian refugees. He was born and resides in Jerusalem.

An APN Briefing Call with Rubinstein will be Friday, June 13, 1:00 PM EST

Call-in Number: 951-797-1058
Participant Access Code: 147414

For a link to the recording available soon after, Email kcunningham@peacenow.org.

On the 47th Anniversary of the Occupation: Time for Hard Truths, Tough Actions

Forty-seven years ago this week, Israel won a stunning victory in the 1967 War.  This was not a war of Israel’s choice or making.  It was a defensive war, with Israel facing threats by armies from countries on all sides seeking Israel’s destruction.  Repelling and defeating these armies, Israel sent a resounding message to the region and the world: we are here to stay. 

Israel’s victory in the 1967 War left it with a pressing question: what to do with the additional land now under its control: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights.  As recognized by many Israelis – and demonstrated in the Camp David Accords with Egypt – these lands offered Israel the opportunity to normalize its position in the region through agreements with its Arab neighbors, based on the principle of  land for peace.

Forty-seven years later, such normalization remains a distant dream.  Rather than act in good faith to seek agreements based on land-for-peace, for 47 years successive Israeli governments have actively and passively collaborated with Israel’s own extremists in their efforts to take land-for-peace off the table in favor of fulfilling their own grandiose, messianic vision of Greater Israel.  And now they’ve succeeding in killing what many believed was the best chance for a negotiated peace agreement with the Palestinians that has ever existed, and the best chance that may exist for a long time to come.

This week, Alpher discusses how the Netanyahu government plans to deal with the anomaly of its position vis-a-vis the new Palestinian government and the proposals and counter-proposals for unilateral and bilateral initiatives which are everywhere in the Netanyahu government; last weekend's dramatic withdrawal from the race of Binyamin (Fuad) Ben Eliezer, who had suddenly come under suspicion of receiving bribes and and when will the corruption trail end; who among the candidates benefits from Ben Eliezer's departure; and how dangerous is it that Palestinian prisoners under administrative detention in Israeli jails are on hunger strike, demanding to be charged and tried and why does administration detention exist in Israel?

Haaretz - June 2, 2014
APN greeted with warm applause at New York's Celebrate Israe parade
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/.premium-1.596607

The Times of Israel - June 3, 2014
APN welcomes formation of Palestinian government and calls on US and Israel to judge it by its positions and actions
http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-jewish-groups-cast-pa-unity-as-rejection-of-peace/