from APN activist Barbara Green

Genesis (Bereshit) is filled with episodes which raise profound questions. Yesterday’s parsha told the story of Noah and the near-destruction of the world, followed by the tale of the Tower of Babel. If I chose to write about Noah I would title it, “Missed Opportunities” and I would start by describing my favorite New Yorker cartoon which shows two dinosaurs sitting atop a small rock, the waters rising all around them. In the far distance a large wooden ship sails away. One of the dinosaurs says to the other, “Oh crap, was that today?” A major missed opportunity, no? (No wonder dinosaurs went extinct.)

Or – I could write about the current electoral impasse in Israel and describe it the same way. Is the system so broken a clean, decisive election is impossible? Does the rightward tilt of the Israeli Jewish public make an alliance with the combined Arab parties an impossibility? Whatever the cause, the Palestinian issue wasn’t raised in the two recent campaigns – and isn’t likely to be dealt with in the foreseeable future. Another monstrous missed opportunity…….

This episode features the panel discussion that Americans for Peace Now sponsored at the J Street National conference in Washington DC on October 27th, 2019.

Included are the full presentations of the three panelists -- former Palestinian ambassador to Washington Maen Areikat, Peace Now's director Shaqued Morag, and Yesh Din director Lior Amihai -- as well as the introduction by Debra Shushan, APN’s policy and government relations director.

Listen to the full episode

On Saturday, November 2, in Tel Aviv, an estimated 100,000 gathered to commemorate the 24th year of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Peace Now displayed a banner "We demand a government of peace. Now!" in encouragement of Keynote speaker Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue-White Party. and had the largest booth from which it distributed signs and merchandise.

Go HERE for pictures

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.

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived

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

An edited recording of a panel that APN hosted on Capitol Hill on 10/26/19, featuring two representatives of our Israeli sister organization, Peace Now (Shalom Achshav), Israel’s peace movement.

Peace Now’s Shaqued Morag and Brian Reeves spoke about the danger to Israel that West Bank annexation poses – both the de-facto annexation that is being advanced every day on the ground in the West Bank and the de-jure annexation that Israel’s right-wing government is vowing to advance.

Their talk was a window into the current agenda and the emphases of Israel’s peace movement, as well as the challenges that the Israeli peace camp faces.

Listen to the full episode