APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday September 14, 2020

Quote of the day:

"Go in peace. Don't come back."
-- Hundreds of anti-government Israelis who showed up at Ben-Gurion Airport to 'send off' Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on his trip to Washington to sign normalization agreements with the UAE and Bahrain in the midst of the corona crisis.*

You Must Be Kidding: 

"Sport is global language endowed with tolerance and peace between countries and peoples. Beitar's fans will soon understand that the people of the Emirates want peace and coexistence."
--Moshe Hogeg, the owner of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, which has a fan club that hates Arabs, said about possibility that the fans will accept the purchase of the team by an Emirati businessman. **

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. 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 - Sunday September 13, 2020

You Must Be Kidding: 
The Israeli government appointed settlers to examine whether Palestinians are constructing with Israeli authorization or not.**

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.

Today's announcement of Bahrain's decision to formalize its relations with Israel, while welcome in and of itself, is used by Benjamin Netanyahu's government to distract from the very real challenges that Israel is facing.

Americans for Peace Now will hold a live streamed memorial event on Tuesday October 20, 2020, marking the 25-year anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

We will honor and celebrate the life and legacy of Yitzhak Rabin with those who knew him, worked with him for peace, and were and remain inspired by him.

The event will be hosted by actor, social activist, and APN Board Member Mandy Patinkin. He will be joined by special guest speakers and musical performers from the US and Israel (already confirmed are Israeli musicians David Broza and Achinoam Nini (“Noa”), videos, and an interactive memorial candle-lighting for those in (virtual) attendance to participate in.

Yitzhak Rabin was a pioneer and fighter in forging the nation-state of Israel. His public life was in service to his country - as a soldier, a diplomat, and a politician – including as Israel’s Prime Minister, first from 1973 to 1977, and again from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. His lasting legacy is of a courageous champion of peace. Rabin led Israel in the historic signing of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinian Liberation Organization - securing mutual recognition and a diplomatic path towards a two-state solution, and in achieving an important peace agreement with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Tragically, at a Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) organized rally in Tel Aviv, Yitzhak Rabin’s life was violently taken by an Israeli zealot, who intended to kill Rabin’s vision of peace by murdering the Prime Minister.

Americans for Peace Now and our Israeli partners Shalom Achshav are proud to have worked with Yitzhak Rabin in life, and to continue advancing his quest for a secure, democratic, Jewish state of Israel through a negotiated two-state resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians, and peace agreements with Israel’s neighboring states.

Go HERE to see an invitation video from event host Mandy Patinkin, and to register to attend!

APN's daily news review from Israel - Thursday September 10, 2020

Quote of the day:
"We were trying to save the two-state solution..If we kept going with the status quo… ultimately, Israel would have eaten up all the land in the West Bank."
--In a phone call with the press, senior advisor and son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, admits that the Trump Administration recognizes Israel's wrongdoing in creating settlements and declares that it accepts that and so must the Palestinians.*

APN's daily news review from Israel - Wednesday September 9, 2020
 
Quote of the day:

“In a country that claims to be one of the glorious democracies, in a country that prides itself on its freedom of speech, how can people be afraid to speak as if the thought police are following them, or the KGB was ambushing them?”
—Miki Levine, Maariv's celebrity gossip columnist, writes about the surprise at the courage of two popular Mizrachi singers to release a protest song.*

You Must Be Kidding: 
Some 70 evangelical Americans received Israeli government permission to visit Israel to volunteer harvesting grapes at settlements, despite ban on entry of foreigners, even Jewish ones.*

APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday September 7, 2020

Quote of the day:

"When the borders in the north and around Gaza are burning, when corona is raging and the epidemic is taking off, when our money is wildly distributed to bribe sectors of society close to those in rule [the ultra-Orthodox], when [anti-Netanyahu] demonstrations are gaining momentum, when [Netanyahu's] bribery trial is imminent and prison is a reasonable option, when the number of unemployed is close to a million - what do you do? That’s right. You flee. The country of escape this week is Abu Dhabi."
--Maariv commentator Ran Edelist on why Israel and the UAE normalized relations now.*

APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday September 7, 2020

Quote of the day:

"When the borders in the north and around Gaza are burning, when corona is raging and the epidemic is taking off, when our money is wildly distributed to bribe sectors of society close to those in rule [the ultra-Orthodox], when [anti-Netanyahu] demonstrations are gaining momentum, when [Netanyahu's] bribery trial is imminent and prison is a reasonable option, when the number of unemployed is close to a million - what do you do? That’s right. You flee. The country of escape this week is Abu Dhabi."
--Maariv commentator Ran Edelist on why Israel and the UAE normalized relations now.*