Action Alert: Tell Congress to Save the Iran Deal, October, 2017
APN Backgrounder: What You Need to Know as Trump Decides Iran Deal’s Fate, October 11, 2017
Briefing call with Robert Malley on the Iran Nuclear Deal, October 10, 2017
The JCPOA at One Year: A Clear Win for the US and Israel July, 2016
Diplomacy Produces Good Iran Deal July 2015
Oped in the Forward - 11 Lies Netanyahu Told Congress on Iran March 3, 2015
APN Analysis & Activism in Support of the P5+1 Negotiations with Iran, 2013-2015

On October 10, 2017, APN hosted a briefing call with Middle East conflict resolution expert Robert Malley on the Iran nuclear deal, days before President Donald Trump is expected to de-certify Iranian compliance with the deal the US, Great Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany reached with Tehran which constrains Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons.

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 the Fateh-Hamas negotiations regarding a unified Palestinian Authority that were set to commence on Monday in Cairo under the tutelage of Egyptian Intelligence Chief Khalid Fawzi. As this crucial reunification process proceeds, many questions arise--more than our usual weekly count. Note that at this juncture in the process, many of the answers are instructive rather than conclusive.

Every Jewish holiday comes with its set of very particular traditions. There is the carefully-prescribed sequence of shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah, the prohibition on putting anything (even a toothbrush) in one’s mouth on Yom Kippur, the precise order of lighting the menorah’s candles during Chanukah, and of course the uncompromising war on chametz in preparation for Passover.

Then along comes Sukkot, when the focus is the etrog, the yellow citron used as one of the ‘four species,’ plants and fruit ritually used by observant Jews during this holiday. A kosher etrog must pass a battery of tests. It must have the right proportions and color, be free of stains or blemishes, and above all, its pistil end (or “nipple”) must be intact. Hasidic Jews at Jerusalem’s Sukkot markets are often seen holding up magnifying glasses to these lemon-like fruit, meticulously scrutinizing them for imperfections. You don’t want to end up with a lemon. It must be perfect.

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 October 2017. 

Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, was controversial from the get-go. Friedman, in a column he ran at the extremist right-wing Israeli publication Arutz 7, referred to our J Street colleagues as “far worse than kapos,” accused President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry of “blatant anti-Semitism” and called the two-state solution “a scam” and “an illusory solution in search of a non-existent problem.”

Then, at his confirmation hearing, he promised concerned senators that things will change once he enters the embassy in Tel Aviv.

That did not happen. In two recent interviews, one with the Jerusalem Post and one with Israel’s Walla news site, Friedman expressed views and positions that are a blatant departure from long-held US policy positions. In his September 28^th Walla interview, referring to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Friedman said: “I think that the settlements are a part of Israel.”

Tell President Trump that this is not acceptable: he must fire David Friedman.

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 suggests readings for understanding the historical backdrop of the current chaos in the Arab Middle East, readings that provide contemporary, historical and political backdrop, and books about Israel.