Update: this action, now closed, ran in August 2018. 

President Trump is again sending his two Middle East envoys, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, together with Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, to the region.

The three will meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to explore prospects for resuming peace talks.

In past meetings, Trump and his aides reportedly criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his government for hate speech and incitement. He also asked Prime Minister Netanyahu to “hold back on settlements,” but seems to have done very little to get Netanyahu to restrain West Bank settlement activity and other anti-peace actions. Indeed, Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition have scoffed at Trump’s call and plowed ahead with the settlement enterprise.

If the Trump Administration is serious about facilitating peace, it must call out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for their share in hindering peace efforts. 

Click here to tell Trump to Demand that Netanyahu’s Government Stop Actions that Hinder Peace Efforts.

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 Israel's absorption of more women and ultra-Orthodox men, and if that engenders conflict; how these army issues and contradictions play out in society; the challenge the IDF confronts; parallels to these issues elsewhere in the Middle East; and if there is a collective bottom line between the Israeli and Kurdish experiences.

Americans for Peace Now is appalled and alarmed by President Trump’s shocking statements yesterday, equating neo-Nazis and white supremacists to progressive demonstrators and equating Robert E. Lee to George Washington. He is completely blurring the lines between right and wrong as he dabbles in the politics of moral equivalence and coddles his racist supporters whose cause is anathema to American values and civil rights.

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 China's proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace; why Beijing bothered with the proposal; Kushner and Greenblatt's upcoming trip to the region; their visits to Egypt and Jordan; and Netanyahu's frequent employment of Orthodox American Jewish immigrants to Israel in trusted senior positions.