Secretary of State John Kerry today articulated, in the clearest possible terms, what is at stake for both Israel and the US: Israel's security and its viability as a democracy and a Jewish state. He also offered a pragmatic vision of the only way forward for Israel that ensures both.
APN mourns the death of David Steiner (pictured in Israel in
November), a former leader of our Chicago chapter, a longtime activist in support of Israel’s peace movement
and various social justice causes, a beacon of ethical thinking, and a fountain of creativity.
David was killed Monday in a bus accident in Uganda while filming a documentary about two Sudanese teens who his son had befriended in Israel. David’s son, Itamar, was lightly injured in the collision, when a reckless driver crashed his car into the bus.
David Steiner spent his late-teen years in Israel at Hakfar Hayarok agricultural boarding school, and served in the IDF during the 1982 Lebanon War. After studying film at UCLA, he moved back to Chicago, where he worked in real estate and in Jewish education, while intensifying his involvement in progressive causes. He owned a small mediation firm, and was a longtime rabbinical student.
David was active in Chicago-APN, the local chapter of Americans for Peace Now, and for years was Chicago-APN’s representative at the local Jewish Community Relations Council.
David Steiner was a good friend. He will be sorely missed.
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 US abstention from last Friday's the UN Security Council resolution condemning the settlements; Netanyahu’s reaction to the abstention: calling Israel’s ambassadors home, dressing down the ambassadors of Security Council members, cancelling meetings with heads of state like the UK’s PM May and Ukraine’s PM Groysman, and suspending a variety of international aid and cooperation programs as well as coordination meetings with the Palestinian Authority; the government of Israel's argument that this resolution renders new two-state solution negotiations less likely because it encourages the Palestinians to adhere to the international route of BDS, UN resolutions and appeals to international courts; whether he would have preferred to see a different Security Council resolution; and if 2334 could contribute ammunition to Palestinian attempts to confront Israel at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
At this time of year, both Christians and Jews celebrate the triumph of light over darkness. This year, Christmas and Hanukkah overlap. We celebrate the light, count our blessings, and wish each other a happy new year.
This time of year also features commitment and resolution. In Hebrew, the word hanukkah means dedication or rededication.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes today's action in the United Nations Security Council in support of Israeli-Palestinian peace and the two-state solution.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) urges the Obama administration to support or abstain on today's UN Security Council resolution in support of Israeli-Palestinian peace and the two-state solution.
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday December 22, 2016
You Must Be Kidding:
"It is permitted to speak Arabic without fear."
--Israel’s Second (Broadcasting) Authority said that that sentence, said by Mira Awad, an Israeli Arab singer and actress, in a TV ad for civil rights was problematic. The Authority prevented the ad from being aired.**
Rabbi Jonah Rank is the Maskil ("Teacher of tradition") at Shaar Shalom Synagogue in Halifax,
Nova Scotia. Rabbi Rank was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2015.
When the humorist Dave Barry released his book Dave Barry’s Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book in 1987, he might not have foreseen that, just three decades later, the United States would have become such a major player in promoting fact-free political discourse. The low bar of entry that permits most Americans access to the internet and the only slightly higher bar that permits most Americans to create web content of any kind have helped bring us to where we are today. When reading articles shared on digital media, if the facts don’t sound like the facts we’ve previously heard, we might ask if this news is real or not: Was it perhaps created from a fake-news website? Is this article actually based on found facts? Is this publication the eloquence of a gullible writer mistaking The Onion for news? Is this piece of journalism simply a collection of conspiracy theories all rooted in a series of truth-contorting tweets?
APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday December 21, 2016
You Must Be Kidding
#1:
“I understand what it is to lose a home. After the 1999 elections, without any warning, my family and I
were driven out of the [Prime Minister's Residence], just thrown on the street. We had to go to the Sheraton
Plaza. It's a terrible feeling."
--Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried to show empathy towards Amona residents (who anyway are getting 1 million shekels per family to move off other people's land), according to a Yedioth report.*
--Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried to show empathy towards Amona residents (who anyway are getting 1 million shekels per family to move off other people's land), according to a Yedioth report.*