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.

August 30th, 2018 was Debra DeLee’s last day as Americans for Peace Now’s President and CEO. As she was packing up her office, Debra sat down with PeaceCast’s host Ori Nir and with APN’s Director of Policy and Government Relations, Debra Shushan.

We talked about Debra’s frustration with America’s Jewish establishment’s inability to confront the moral challenges related to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We talked about the leadership role of women in Jewish organizations. We talked the wonderful people that comprise the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement in the United States. And we talked about hope.

Debra led APN for the past 21 years, through thick and thin, and has been one of the most influential figures in the movement. In addition to her professionalism and her leadership skills, Debra is a mensch. Her humanity and charm clearly shine in this conversation.

Debating Ruthie Blum of the Gatestone Institute, Shushan discussed Hebron shooter Elor Azaria's interview stating "I have no regrets" in Israel HaYom, the Israeli court ruling granting settlers in an outpost rights to private Palestinian land, and Nikki Haley's statement on the status and right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Israeli Soldiers Forced to Carry Out an Immoral Occupation (00:22)

Taking Refugees "Off The Table" (00:18)

Debunking the Right-Wing Narrative on Palestinian Refugees (4:13)

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

1. Bills, Resolution, & Letters
2. On the Record
 

NOTE: Jewish News Syndicate – Al Jazeera, among other foreign news outlets, targeted under new defense bill (press release from Daniel Pipes/Middle East Forum is here).
 

During a recent Shabbat, I had a memory flash. Reading the haftorah, Amos 9, I remembered something that happened 70 years ago. I was 13, in middle school, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We started every morning with the Pledge of Allegiance and then the Lord’s Prayer (my parents told me to stand silently). Then one of the students would read a few lines from the Bible. Sometime in the spring of 1948, I chose a few lines from Amos 9:

And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them;
and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; and
they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which
I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.

I didn’t believe all this would be God’s doing, but I did believe it was being done by the Jews of the Yishuv, and I was incredibly proud. It was, it still is, their project, but it is also our project, and it isn’t finished. Not by a long shot.