Negativity Hands Iran a Victory -- and Isolates Jewish State

As the world's leaders converge in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is encountering an unusual confluence of activities and initiatives concerning nonconventional weaponry in the Middle East. Some of this activity appears to be working to Israel's benefit, some of it against Israel. Netanyahu is working overtime to emphasize the negative, in ways that could prove counterproductive for Israel.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes President Barack Obama's commitment to continue pursuing Arab-Israeli peace and to continue focusing on peacefully preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

In particular, APN endorses President Obama's focus at the United Nation's General Assembly on engagement with Iran. APN also joins the President's call on friends of Israel in the US and worldwide to "recognize that Israel's security as a Jewish and democratic state depends on the realization of a Palestinian state." 

Shemini Atzeret -"the Eighth [day] of Assembly"- is celebrated beginning Wednesday night, September 25th, immediately followed by Simchat Torah - "Rejoicing of the Torah" - on Thursday night, September 26th. (In Israel, the holidays are combined into one and either name can be used).

Americans for Peace Now's President and CEO Debra DeLee and our Chairman of the Board Jim Klutznick represented APN last night at a meeting for Jewish community leaders with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York.

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Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization, Israel's Peace Now movement, in strongly condemning the killing of two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank over the Sukkot holiday weekend.

This week, Alpher discusses the strategic challenges Israel confronts in the United Nations General Assembly session opening this week, why the Israeli government, alone, is criticizing President Rowhani's moderate statements, how we get from the Iranian Syrian non-conventional weapons issues to attempts to restrain Israel's nuclear potential, and why Russia is so interested in a failed state like Syria, and what consequences we can expect in the wake of two IDF soldiers killed in recent days in the West Bank, and an incident over the demolishing of Arab dwellings in the Jordan Valley that got Israel into trouble with the European Union.

APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday September 22, 2013

Quote of the day:

"...it wouldn't take long for Israel and other critics of Iran to sorely miss (Rouhani's) predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."
--Haaretz US affairs commentator Chemi Shalev writes how the new Iranian President has made life difficult for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.**

APN's daily news review from Israel

 Friday September 20, 2013

Quote of the day:

"We hope...that the law will be enforced and the Israelis staying there will be removed and the Palestinian owners can return safely to their lands."
--Yesh Din Israeli human rights organization comments on the return of private Palestinian land to their owners after 35 years since the establishment of Homesh settlement.**

Beginning Wednesday night, September 18th, the Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins. During the week-long holiday, Jews build a special kind of home to dwell in for the week, called a sukkah. The sukkah is a deliberately temporary house, which can have no more than one permanent wall, and whose roof must be open to the sky, covered only partially by natural materials such as branches. The sukkah is a strange sort of dwelling, and yet, it is so important, that we use it every Friday night on Shabbat, as a metaphor for peace, asking that God, "spread over us a sukkah of Your peace." May this year's sukkah be a sukkat shalom, a sukkah of peace, and may we merit to build our house - Israel- from peace.