I’ve written a series of columns from Israel in the past two weeks because I believe that if Secretary of State John Kerry brings his peace mission to a head and presents the parties with a clear framework for an agreement, Israel and the Jewish people will face one of the most critical choices in their history. And when they do, all hell could break loose in Israel. It is important to understand why.

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Thirty-one years ago, on February 10^th 1983, Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig was murdered by an extreme right Jewish terrorist at a Peace Now demonstration in Jerusalem.

Not far from the Prime Minister’s Office, the terrorist, Yona Avrushmi,  lobbed a hand grenade at the front row of the Peace Now marchers. It killed Emil and injured several of his friends.

It was the first in a series of terrorist attacks by extremist right-wing Israelis against the Israeli peace camp. This campaign to crush peace efforts culminated with the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin twelve years later.

This week, Alpher discusses what motivates pro-settler critics of Kerry; what the Israeli public thinks about the danger of sanctions; whether there is more than meets the eye to the issue of the controversy provoked by Netanyahu's remark that he "doesn't intend to remove a single settler;" and with two Iranian warships are currently crossing the Atlantic and heading toward the US territorial water boundary, what is Iran trying to tell us.

Secretary of State John Kerry caused outrage in Israel recently when he declared: “For Israel there’s an increasing delegitimization campaign that has been building up. People are very sensitive to it. There is talk of boycotts and other kinds of things. Today’s status quo absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained. It’s not sustainable. It’s illusionary.”

Members of the Israeli government were indignant. Israel, they declared, will not negotiate under pressure. Advice givers, stay away! But Kerry was only repeating what Israel’s own finance minister, Yair Lapid, had already said: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (B.D.S.) movement is beginning to bite.

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Huffington Post - February 4, 2014
APN's Lara Friedman: No such thing as "benevolent occupation"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lara-friedman/sodastream-scarjo-and-the_b_4719194.html

Washington Post (AP story) - February 5, 2014
Peace Now condemns new permits for construction in East Jerusalem
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-negotiator-blasts-ministers-on-kerry-rebuke/2014/02/05/2df10c08-8e5e-11e3-878e-d76656564a01_story.html

Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann, on a visit to Washington, briefed APN supporters and activists on Friday, February 7^th, 2014.