Go HERE for an archive of past versions featuring Israelis such as Shabtai Shavit, Yuval Diskin, Yitzhak Rabin, Meir Dagan, Tzipi Livni, Shomo Gazit, Rabbi Michael Melchior, and more....
Update: this action, now closed, ran in September 2017.
Last week, any remaining pretense of US leadership in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was dealt a serious blow when State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert declined to recommit the United States to a two-state solution to the conflict. Strikingly, Nauert rejected the vision articulated by successive US administrations since 2002, Republican and Democratic, by suggesting that endorsing a two-state solution would "bias one side over the other."
Two members of Congress, David Price (D-NC) and Gerald E. Connolly (D-VA), released a statement in response calling on the Trump Administration to "stop equivocating on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" and imploring it to "reaffirm the United State' support for a viable, lasting, and mutually-agreed upon two-state solution and to make this support clear in public and private statements."
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 UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's statement during his visit to Ramallah that there is “no plan B to the two-state solution"; examples of "plan B's"; Guterres's statement that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is one of the most dramatic he has seen, and that the punitive siege should be removed; whether the new language in UNIFIL's renewed mandate will make a difference as the clock ticks on conflict between Israel and Iran/Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Syria.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday September 5, 2017
Quote of the day:
"Israel Hayom newspaper was set up to serve Netanyahu, so when he called the editor to dictate the
headlines, he certainly did not think there was anything wrong with that. The newspaper was at his
disposal.”
—Former minister of justice Meir Sheetrit, who was in the Likud for 32 years, tells Maariv after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's phone calls logs were revealed and juxtaposed with headlines.**
—Former minister of justice Meir Sheetrit, who was in the Likud for 32 years, tells Maariv after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's phone calls logs were revealed and juxtaposed with headlines.**
APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday September 4, 2017
Quote of the day:
"As has already been said many times: If he knew, it's serious. If he did not know, it is even more
serious, because it indicates a serious management failure."
--Maariv's senior political commentator, Ben Caspit, writes about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's claim that he was not aware of any corruption in the acquisition of three submarines that the security establishment did not even want, despite the fact that the police have arrested or questioned: two of Netanyahu's former bureau chiefs, a former head of the National Security Council whom Netanyahu appointed and Netanyahu's personal lawyer and cousin.*
--Maariv's senior political commentator, Ben Caspit, writes about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's claim that he was not aware of any corruption in the acquisition of three submarines that the security establishment did not even want, despite the fact that the police have arrested or questioned: two of Netanyahu's former bureau chiefs, a former head of the National Security Council whom Netanyahu appointed and Netanyahu's personal lawyer and cousin.*
APN's daily news review from Israel
Sunday September 3, 2017
Quote of the Day #1:
"The main difference is that we are making the story about the people who live in the country and not
about the country itself.”
--Shirley Ramon, head of Educational Authority in Tel-Aviv Municipality, explains why the city is rejecting the Education Ministry's 'Israeli Journey' of trips for pupils for its own secular journey.*
Quote of the Day #2:
“I recently heard that among the Likud values there is a new value called ‘loyalty to the leader.’ I hear this from the Likud leadership. I was not aware of such a value… I think it is a very grave development, and utterly ridiculous nonsense.”
--Maverick Likud MK Benny Begin, son of legendary Likud prime minister Menahem Begin, derided what he described as a growing trend in his party in which members are expected to express personal loyalty to faction leader Benjamin Netanyahu.**
--Shirley Ramon, head of Educational Authority in Tel-Aviv Municipality, explains why the city is rejecting the Education Ministry's 'Israeli Journey' of trips for pupils for its own secular journey.*
Quote of the Day #2:
“I recently heard that among the Likud values there is a new value called ‘loyalty to the leader.’ I hear this from the Likud leadership. I was not aware of such a value… I think it is a very grave development, and utterly ridiculous nonsense.”
--Maverick Likud MK Benny Begin, son of legendary Likud prime minister Menahem Begin, derided what he described as a growing trend in his party in which members are expected to express personal loyalty to faction leader Benjamin Netanyahu.**
APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday September 1, 2017
Quote of the day:
“Try not to come with prejudices. Prejudices are boring.”
—President of Israel Reuven Rivlin in an Op-Ed in Yedioth to Israeli children on their first day of school.
You Must Be Kidding:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu claimed on Facebook that it’s normal for a politician to speak 234 times in three years with the editor-in-chief of a major newspaper.
Former prime minister Ehud Barak responded on Twitter:
"Summary of conversations [with newspaper publishers and editors] from 20 years in politics in all positions: [Haaretz publisher] Amos Schocken - 1. [Yedioth publisher] Noni Moses - 3. With [Israel Hayom editor-in-chief] Amos Regev - 3, usually [to talk] about Mahler, [We are] two fans.”
“Try not to come with prejudices. Prejudices are boring.”
—President of Israel Reuven Rivlin in an Op-Ed in Yedioth to Israeli children on their first day of school.
You Must Be Kidding:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu claimed on Facebook that it’s normal for a politician to speak 234 times in three years with the editor-in-chief of a major newspaper.
Former prime minister Ehud Barak responded on Twitter:
"Summary of conversations [with newspaper publishers and editors] from 20 years in politics in all positions: [Haaretz publisher] Amos Schocken - 1. [Yedioth publisher] Noni Moses - 3. With [Israel Hayom editor-in-chief] Amos Regev - 3, usually [to talk] about Mahler, [We are] two fans.”
American interests will be worse off without two states. But it’s time to consider how we might make the best
of that bad situation.
By Daniel Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel
Last week, as President Trump’s Middle East team was preparing to arrive in Israel for another round of preliminary talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert offered a rather startling defense of the Administration’s refusal to endorse a two-state solution. She said that to do so would be a sign of “bias.”
She’s right, of course. It would indeed show bias toward the only outcome that can truly serve the interests of the United States—as recognized by three previous administrations—not to mention Israelis, Palestinians, and the Middle East as a whole.
But her remark reinforced a thought I’ve been chewing on since early 2013: maybe it’s time that the United States consider options other than a two-state solution.
Wait. Don’t get the wrong idea. Let me put my cards on the table.
I’ve been supporting the goal of Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security since 1988. It hit me early in the days of the first Intifada that there was no other solution, which made me something of an early adopter of that position among advocates for Israel.
I’ve spent 20 years in government service, in two administrations and on Capitol Hill, working toward this goal, advocating, advancing, and protecting efforts to achieve it.
Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts were the single most prominent aspect of my assignments in the Obama Administration at the National Security Council and as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. I can attest to the commitment that President Obama, Secretaries of State Clinton and Kerry, and Special Envoys George Mitchell and Martin Indyk demonstrated to helping Israelis and Palestinians achieve the dream of two states. We were not successful, but I will always be proud to have joined them in this noble cause.
And to this moment, nothing has changed my mind, or my analysis, about which outcome to this seemingly endless conflict is best for the United States, for securing Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, for Palestinians’ legitimate goals of self-determination in a state of their own, and for opening up relations between Israel and the Arab world.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday August 31, 2017
Quote of the day:
“Like many politicians before him, Netanyahu reached the point in which he is truly convinced that he
and the state are one. Whoever criticizes him is committing treason against the state.”
--Yedioth’s top political commentator Nahum Barnea in an Op-Ed following Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech yesterday in which he attacked the media.*
--Yedioth’s top political commentator Nahum Barnea in an Op-Ed following Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech yesterday in which he attacked the media.*
Israel’s Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman told reporters yesterday that this year, 2017, is a record year in terms of Israeli West Bank settlement construction. “We went over all the Jewish settlement data, from the year 2000 through 2017 – Bush, Obama, and now. There has never been such a settlement momentum,” he said, pointing to a total of over 10,000 new homes approved for construction, most of them (some 7,000) still planed, and some 3,400 under construction.