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

SHAMELESS PLUG: Enjoy the Legislative Round-Up? Then you’ll probably also enjoy another great publication of the Foundation for Middle East Peace – our new weekly report on Israeli settlements, covering everything you need to know about the latest settlement-related developments in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, authored by FMEP Director of Policy and Operations Kristin McCarthy. Click here to read this week's edition and to subscribe (so that you get it in your inbox every Friday).

Normangee Star:June 27, 2016
"Israel starts work on new West Bank settlement," Peace Now says there has been a 70% increase in settlement construction.

Ma'an News: June 26, 2016
"Claims of Israeli settlement freeze and 'attempt' to fool public," Peace Now says "the alleged promise by Netanyahu, if it truly happened, is another spin of the Netanyahu government trying to fool the public."

Around 15% of the Jewish settlers’ population in the West Bank are of American origin, American Jews who have made Aliyah (emigrated to Israel), and chose to settle the West Bank.

It feels as if their proportion is even larger, because they are so central to the ideological settlers’ movement, so active and so vociferous.

The expert on this issue is Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a lecturer at Oxford University in the UK. Her recently published book on this topic, is City on a Hilltop. Sara spoke about the focus of her research at a book event co-sponsored by the Foundation for Middle East Peace and Americans for Peace Now at Busboys and Poets in Washington DC on June 25th. This show is an edited version of her talk. I moderated the discussion, and learned a lot.

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 what it means for Israel and the US that Syria's President Bashar Assad appears to have survived the prolonged insurrection against him; why Israel has stepped up assistance, including military assistance, to relatively moderate Syrian rebel groups across the Golan border; what is changing with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon; where the US comes into the picture; and American boots on the ground in Syria and the bigger strategic picture.