For a donation of $108 or more, APN will send you "City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement", by Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, who has written a Chanukah message for APN below.

Please note that all but $30 of your donation will be tax deductible and please be sure to put “Hilltop” in the comment field. We can send it to you or to the Chanukah-gift recipient of your choice, which you should also indicate in the comment field.

This Chanukah, it may seem to many of Americans for Peace Now’s supporters that the light of peace has snuffed out in the region. Will all the stakeholders somehow be able to burn the midnight oil to achieve a peace deal? Can the beacons of liberalism, democracy, and justice outshine forces of illiberalism, racism, and despair in Israel/Palestine? It seems like we may truly need a miracle to save the two state-solution this year.

On the 50th anniversary of the 1967 War.

Many of us have watched with consternation as the current U.S. administration (with a new cast of characters in the White House that have long been associated with the right-wing) has changed enduring policies regarding the status of Jerusalem and possibly the settlements question. Yet, the story of American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement is one far deeper than a small circle advising the sitting president over the past few months. Iit is the saga of over 60,000 American Jews who chose to leave comfortable lives in the United States to settle at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict and make history over the past half-century. This Chanukah, we need to listen to scholars and policy-makers who can shed new light on these pressing issues for Israelis and Palestinians.

Best,

Sara

Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn is the University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies and the Sidney Brichto Fellow, at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford

It took Donald Trump less than a year. Now – after setting ablaze every sensitive issue in American public life and after alienating some of our closest international allies – he has tossed a firebomb into Jerusalem, the most combustible place on earth.

For those who had illusions about his ability to strike what he calls "the ultimate deal," Trump’s unilateral, reckless and diplomatically useless recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital serves as a bitter reality check.

Since Trump’s announcement last week, I’ve heard many doomsday expressions. The hyperbole, as well as the cycle of disappointment, violence and bloodshed make it easy to succumb to "hope fatigue."

Please read the following letter I’ve written for Americans for Peace Now about the remedy for such fatigue - it is being mailed now to tens of thousands of American households - and please consider including APN in your end-of-year giving.

If APN represents your voice, as it does mine, please consider joining me in making a generous year-end donation.

In peace,

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.

This week, Alpher discusses Arab and Muslim reactions to President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem; some interesting responses from independent-minded Israelis and others; what everyone is fighting over and what "Alpher's Jerusalem"looks like; what it might look like if the Palestinian chief negotiator declared, “the two-state solution is over” and Palestinians begin to seek Israeli citizenship in a one-state solution.

On December 7th, 2017, APN hosted former US consul General in Jerusalem, Jacob (Jake) Walles. Ambassador Walles spoke about the repercussions of President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his decision to start preparations for transferring America’s Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Jacob Walles is a nonresident senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on Israeli-Palestinian issues, Tunisia, and counterterrorism. Throughout his 35-year career in the foreign service, he was U.S. ambassador to Tunisia (2012 to 2015), consul general and chief of mission in Jerusalem (2005 to 2009), and served as senior adviser in the State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism (2015 to 2017). During his long career at the State Department, Walles was actively involved in Middle East peace negotiations, beginning with the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991 and continuing through the Obama administration.

(You can also donate online and indicate "Vision of Peace" in the comments box)

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

Note: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the big news on the Middle East front this week was President Trump’s “Jerusalem Proclamation,” recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announcing the start of the process to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. There have been tons of excellent (and not-so-excellent) articles on the issue. Shameless plug here for two from me:

Huffington Post 12/6: Making America’s Mideast Policy Great Again?

Times of Israel 12/6: Reflections on the Death of the Peace Process