from Hadar Susskind, APN President and CEO:

In recent days, there has been a great deal of discussion about our decision to honor the late Yitzhak Rabin and his legacy of peace.

There’s a lot to discuss about Rabin’s legacy. But let me be clear, we at APN continue to hold the prospect of peace as the ultimate goal for Israelis and Palestinians, and we honor the legacy of Yitzhak Rabin and his courageous steps towards peace.

We know that you do too. Your support of APN has been a beacon for the movement for nearly 40 years. That is why we need you to help us commemorate Rabin’s life and continue our work as his legacy.

Rabin was a model for the transformation from enmity and conflict to peace and reconciliation that our Israeli sister organization, Shalom Achshav, is fighting to achieve in Israel, and that we at APN support here in the United States.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s personal and political transformation inspired hope for peace as no other Israeli leader has. It was Rabin’s power to inspire, as a general-turned-statesman, that led his assassin, Jewish zealot Yigal Amir, to murder him at the end of a peace rally 25 years ago. Amir’s three bullets reversed the process of reconciliation and compromise that Rabin had championed and led us down the path toward 25 years of additional conflict.

For Israel’s peace movement and its supporters in the United States, it is natural to honor a man who shifted from hawk to dove, from fighting Palestinians and denying their national identify and collective rights, to formally recognizing them and their national aspirations. Rabin’s personal transformation inspired millions of Israelis and Palestinians, and supporters of peace between the two peoples worldwide, to believe that a peace agreement based on a historical compromise was attainable.

By commemorating this courageous leader and his political transformation, even as we acknowledge the complexity of his legacy, we are reaffirming our belief that a return to his path of reconciliation is the only viable way forward. A peace based on mutual respect and the acknowledgement of national aspirations is not just a dream – it is the only realistic alternative to endless conflict. It is necessary, and, yes, it is within reach. It depends on leadership, the leadership modeled by Yitzhak Rabin..

You have been a part of this quest for many years. With your help, we will keep Rabin’s spirit alive. We will continue to expand our urgent work to educate Israelis and Americans, including elected officials, on the imperative of achieving lasting peace through negotiations and compromise.

Please help us light the path towards peace with a gift to APN today.

And we hope that you will join us for our October 20th commemoration of the life and legacy of Yitzhak Rabin. Register HERE and participate in the largest memorial service outside of Israel, marking 25 years since his death.

As I demonstrate against Netanyahu, black banner and Israel flag in hand . . .

Early Saturday evening. I stand at a busy junction not far from my house. I wave a flag of Israel and a black banner. With me are around 25 neighbors. We are strangers to one another, having been drawn togetheer solely by the drive to protest against Prime Minister Netanyahu--Bibi.

Because we are all spaced two or more meters apart and all wearing masks and waving flags, and because tides of approving drivers honk as they go by, and because we are not exactly old friends, we broadly avoid conversation while we demonstrate against Bibi. So I have the time and opportunity to think. Indeed, to think in depth, insofar as I’m one of those Jews who searches their soul every day rather than specifically on Yom Kippur.

The first and inevitable thought that crosses my mind as I stand in silence is, what good is this doing? I and tens of thousands of fellow Israelis line up at more than 300 traffic junctions and bridges spanning superhighways across Israel, demonstrating week after week. The younger and more adventuresome demonstrate in huge numbers outside PM Netanyahu’s residences. We are constantly growing, our numbers swelled by the apprehensions Netanyahu has instilled in us.

We are sorry to hear that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez will no longer be speaking at our Oct. 20th Yitzhak Rabin memorial. Her participation would have added to the event. We are certain that the event will be a success and invite the public to register and attend. 

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

APN's daily news review from Israel - Thursday September 24, 2020

 Quote of the day:

"...(Haaretz Editor-in-Chief) Aluf Benn is wrong when he calls the left-wing criticism of the accords (with the UAE and Bahrain) 'achingly pathetic.' Israel’s control of the territories and its inhabitants and ending the conflict with them are not just the litmus test by which the accords that Israel has signed must be judged – it is the heart of the matter. Benn knows full well that despite the accords, tomorrow a Palestinian will stand humiliated at a checkpoint and when the next Jewish holiday comes around we’ll impose a closure on our neighbors."
--Executive Director of Breaking the Silence, Avner Gvaryahu, writes in an incisive Op-Ed today.*

APN's daily news review from Israel - Wednesday September 23, 2020

Quote of the day:

We are honoring "an American Supreme Court justice, a Jew, a champion of human rights in general and of women's rights specifically. An inspiring, brave woman."
--Elad Tesler, a member of Kibbutz Ramat Hashofet (Kibbutz of the Judge Highlands), explained how kibbutz residents were honoring former Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: by changing the kibbutz name to 'Kibbutz Ramat Hashofetet, meaning (Kibbutz of the female Judge of the Highlands).*

Rafi Nets-Zehngut’s new book (currently in Hebrew only) focuses on the collective memory among Israeli Jews of the question of the Palestinian exodus from Palestine during the 1948 war, the war that Israeli Jews refer to as the War of Independence and that the Palestinians refer to as the Naqba, the catastrophe.

One of his most intriguing and surprising findings is that the biased “official” Zionist narrative regarding this experience has been challenged in Israel and then lost its grounding much earlier than one may think.

How did this happen? Why is it important? How may it impact efforts to advance peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians?

Dr. Nets-Zehngut addresses these questions and others in this episode of PeaceCast.

LISTEN