APN is fighting back

The election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States has set off reverberations around the world. For many, the alarm bells could not be ringing any louder. A campaign that featured anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment, and was supported by a legion of online anti-Semites, is now transitioning to an administration that makes many Americans justifiably fearful.

Donate TodaySteve Bannon, the former editor of the right-wing Breitbart News who has trafficked in conspiracy theories, race-baiting, and anti-Semitism, has been appointed as President-elect Trump’s chief strategist and counselor. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, an avowed Islamophobe, has been appointed as national security advisor. Senator Jeff Sessions, an anti-immigrant crusader who has made numerous racially insensitive and derogatory remarks, will become Trump’s attorney general. And Trump is considering the appointment of secretaries of defense and state who would seek to destroy the Iran deal, jeopardizing U.S. and Israeli security in the process.

Help APN fight back against right-wing extremists in the U.S. and Israel – and keep hope for peace alive

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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 how the Levant is reacting as President-elect Trump announces key appointments; the reaction in Israel to Trump’s indication of the far-right direction he plans to follow; the striking exception to the pro-settler sentiments and atmosphere encouraged by the Trump victory; whether the Trump victory atmosphere will affect the upcoming Elor Azaria verdict; a seeming fixation with the Mediterranean and what can be learned from it.

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News Nosh 11.21.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday November 21, 2016  

Quote of the day:
"The feeling will be like a baby in a diaper: In the beginning it will be warm and comfy, and then it will be cold and wet."
--In a fascinating Op-Ed that gives great information about the High Court's rulings' connections to the beginning of the settler movement, Yedioth's top political commentator Nahum Barnea gives a radical suggestion to the High Court justices on dealing with settlement related petitions.

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News Nosh 11.20.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Sunday November 20, 2016  
 
Quote of the day:
"Indeed, you have so much in common. The undisguised racism that you share with pride is not surprising at all. A little more surprising is the longing for the visit of a serial stalker, a pathological liar and a proud tax-evader."
--Gal Zohar, the wine expert of the Dan hotel chain, slammed a settler winery owner for inviting President-elect Trump to visit her winery - and he got showered with criticism.**
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Open Letter to President-elect Donald J. Trump from Jewish American Organizations

Today, APN joined proudly with other Jewish American organizations in sending a letter to President-Elect Donald Trump. The letter lays out many of our concerns and hopes for the coming Administration and sends an unambiguous message about our work for the future: 

“…you will find willing partners in the Jewish community to join with your administration if it follows a path that upholds and defends the principles of fairness, justice and freedom on which this country was built. But, we will not stand idly by if you choose to take actions that violate human rights, or that reverse the progress we have made at home and abroad. You will find us as powerful opponents of any effort to undermine these gains.”

The full text of the letter is copied below. A downloadable pdf version of the letter is available here.

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News Nosh 11.18.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday November 18, 2016  
 
Quote of the day:
"I can’t accept the claim that the oppression of another people, the denial of basic human rights, and racism and hate are necessary for the existence of State of Israel."
--Tamar Alon said this week when she refused to be drafted.** 
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News Nosh 11.17.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday November 17, 2016  
 
Quote of the day:
"Before Trump, American Jews were definitely concerned about what appeared to be growing anti-Semitism in Europe, but much of this, we reasoned was a reaction to Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians, together with the influx of Muslim Middle Eastern immigrants into these same countries...but the U.S., fortunately, never had any such experience. Most of us believed anti-Semitism in America to be so marginal it was not really worth worrying about. Today many Jews are not so sure."
--Journalist Eric Alterman writes in Haaretz+ that Jews in America face 'uncharted waters' following the appointment of Steve Bannon, "Trump’s Rasputin in the White House."**
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News Nosh 11.16.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday November 16, 2016  
 
Exchange of the day:
“I love you. You are doing what you need to do in a democracy. But from my point of view the law in Ofra is the same as in Tel Aviv."
--Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) told Peace Now activists demonstrating outside his home last night against the outpost legalization bill.
“According to that logic, there is no problem from your point of view with us putting a caravan tomorrow in your back yard." 
--Director of Peace Now Avi Buskila quipped.**

Quote of the day:
"In 2015 Israeli authorities demolished 982 homes belonging to Bedouin citizens in the Negev...The Bedouin have a real claim to the land, which the state disputes. In Amona, on the other hand, there is no dispute over the fact that the land on which the outpost was built belongs to Palestinians — only over the right of Jewish Israelis to expropriate that land."
--+972mag commentator Noam Sheizaf explains the falsehood behind the claim by right-wing ministers that Israel demolishes only Jewish homes.*
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News Nosh 11.15.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday November 15, 2016  
 
Quote of the day:
"It’s easy to obey when [the court] accepts our position, but it must be just as easy to accept a ruling when it’s not compatible with our position." 
--Israel's Attorney General tells the state and the settlers they must respect the court ruling to demolish Amona outpost and cannot pass a law legalizing outposts built on privately-owned Palestinian land.*
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November 14, 2016 - Trump and the Middle East

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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 if it's possible that the Middle East contributed to Trump’s election victory; contradictions in Trump’s Middle East policy positions; whether Trump’s demand that countries like Japan and South Korea and NATO members pay their own way in defense matters could also affect Israel; are Trump’s first public policy statements since being elected that he welcomes the challenge of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict empty bluster or a serious commitment; whether Trump’s Republican, evangelical and militia-minded constituency committed to Israel’s security from a religious-ideological standpoint; if Middle East leaders, following the lead of Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi, were correct in their assumptions that Trump’s electoral victory will reduce US pressures on their regimes regarding human rights issues; and how much of this is pure speculation .

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