The letter includes: “We welcome bipartisan efforts aimed at
combating anti-Semitism. However, much of the recent rhetoric and political maneuvering on the issue seems
cynically focused on showing that one party cares more about anti-Jewish bigotry than the other. This political
theater is not only counter-productive, but endangers the very people such advocates claim to defend.”
--Haaretz commentator Chemi Shalev in a column in today's paper.*
"Now it's official – the Likud tried to lower the Arab turnout through illegal means. Hidden cameras, monitoring and voter suppression. This is what de-legitimization of a fifth of the citizenry looks like. What started out as unleashed racist incitement continued in the nation-state law and could end with a transfer government and revoking rights."
--MK Ayman Odeh, head of the Hadash-Ta'al slate, explained that the Likud-backed people showing up with cameras sparked confrontations and riots, which halted the voting process at some polling stations and caused fear among many Arabs who decided to not to go to the polling stations.**
Go HERE for "American Jews, Resist Netanyahu Like He's Trump" by Ori Nir, APN Director of Communications and Public Engagement.
Netanyahu's re-election is a black day for solidly
liberal American Jews, whose relations with a pro-Trump Israel were already in crisis. But we can't give
up
Already in crisis, relations between Israel and American Jews are headed for a harsh reckoning in the wake of this week's victory by Israel’s right-wing bloc, helmed by the once and perpetual prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
While American Jews remain overwhelmingly liberal - one of the most solidly progressive constituencies in the U.S., despite President Donald Trump’s absurd attempts to promote a "Jexodus" – the majority of Israelis have jettisoned Israel’s founding values of socialist Zionism to move ever rightward.
What William Galston observed months ago is now indisputably true: Israel has become a Trump-enamored red state, while American Jews are the bluest of blue staters, who view Trump as an existential threat, both to our safety and to the liberal society in which we have flourished.
Dear Friend,
Israeli elections are over. Any hopes that we may have had for
electoral change that would garner pro-peace leadership are dashed.
Temporarily.
Facing three indictments, Benjamin Netanyahu may soon leave the political scene.
Meanwhile, we have a reinvigorated Netanyahu, backed by his political twin Donald Trump, pushed hard by his extreme right-wing coalition partners to deliver his campaign promise of West Bank annexation.
Let’s not mince words, my friends: With Trump’s blessing, Netanyahu is on his way to officially, legally, establish an apartheid regime in the West Bank, and make it even harder for future Israeli leaders to make peace. Let’s be clear: Yesterday’s elections have put Netanyahu and his allies on a faster, surer track to destroy Israel’s democracy and to further crush its ethos of equality, justice, and tolerance.
For us, progressive Americans who care about Israel, today is a call to action. Today, we are redoubling our commitment to the cause of a democratic Israel that lives in peace and security with its neighbors and embodies the values we so strongly believe in.
As we approach this year’s Passover Seder, I’m writing to wish you all a happy holiday and to explain why your support — ongoing or first-time — is so important for Americans for Peace Now and Shalom Achshav. As a veteran of Israel’s strategic security establishment who currently, in semi-retirement, writes (compulsively! almost daily! weekly in my Q & A for APN!) about Israel-related security issues, I hope you will permit me in this connection a brief Pesach reminiscence.
Lately, my own research and writing efforts have taken me back to the events of Passover 2002. On March 27, Erev Pesach, a Hamas suicide bomber attacked several hundred people gathered for a Seder at the Park Hotel, near the beach in Netanya in central Israel. He killed 30 Israelis and maimed some 160 others.
--Yedioth commentator Shlomo Pyuterkovsky on the future of the 5th Netanyahu government.*
CGTN's Elaine Reyes spoke with Debra Shushan, the director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now, about the upcoming Israel election.
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.
Alarmed by Prime Minister Netanyahu's repeated statements of intent to annex Israeli West Bank settlements if elected for another term, Americans for Peace Now calls on all stakeholders to unequivocally reject Netanyahu's pledge and underscore its disastrous repercussions.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in asserting that by vowing to annex the settlements, Netanyahu is threatening Israel's future as a democracy and a Jewish state. West Bank annexation will severely threaten Israel's national security. It is also a detrimental to US national security interests.