Over the weekend, more than 70 American intellectuals - including members of APN's Board of Directors such as Michael Walzer and Edward Witten - published an Open Letter in the New York Review of Books calling for a targeted boycott of “all goods and services from all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, and any investments that promote the Occupation.”
APN warmly welcomes and endorses this letter. Its message echoes and validates the position that APN has proudly advocated for years, often as a lone voice of sanity in the pro-Israel Jewish community. You can find out more about our position - expressed in policy statements, opeds, advocacy documents, and more - here.
Like the signers of the Open Letter, we oppose boycotts of Israel. And like the signers of the Open Letter, we have long argued for activism targeting settlements and the occupation, which we believe to be an important and effective way to fight the occupation and fortify the foundations of a two-state solution.
We are pleased and encouraged to see that this position is gaining greater traction in the American intellectual community, especially given the fact that the conflation of Israel and the settlements is becoming dangerously mainstream. Now more than ever, we must fight to uphold the distinction between Israel and the settlements. We must reject the creeping legitimization of settlements. And, with our rhetoric and our activism, we must target the pro-settlement and anti-peace policies that fuel the occupation and endanger the two-state solution. This Open Letter is an important step in doing all of those things, and we commend its authors and signers. We also hope their action will inspire others to act as well - click here for some actions that can be taken today to fight settlements and the occupation.
You Must Be Kidding:
"He represents courage and presence."
--Parents of newborn explain why they named their son after Elor Azariya, the ‘Shooting Soldier from Hebron,’ who is on trial for shooting dead a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian assailant.**
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 where Israel positioned itself in the Middle East during the outgoing year; how the Israel-US relationship appears to have suffered; how events in the surrounding Middle East affected the mood of Israelis; how the so-called “lone wolf intifada” affected Israelis; and the prospects for progress between Israel and the Palestinians in the year ahead .
--Israel's Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said about attempts by ministers and right-wing MKs to make an amendment to the Absentee Property law in order to confiscate privately-owned Palestinian land, Channel 10 reported.*
Wall Street Journal: September 22
“Abbas
to seek U.N. Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” Peace Now settlement
data quoted in story on possible Israeli-Palestinian UN resolution
AFP: September 22, 2016
“Israel,
Palestinians clash over settlements at UN,” Peace Now settlement data quoted in story on possible
Israeli-Palestinian UN resolution
Times of Israel (written by JTA): September 19
“Liberal
pro-Israel groups to Congress: Don’t obstruct the Iran deal,” Americans for Peace Now and other groups warn
against “poison-pill” provisions and measures that would seek to re-impose sanctions
Front Page:
- Kerry: Israel is turning into a bi-national state, we must act or shut up
- Assad is pounding Aleppo: Entire areas were destroyed
- Finance Ministry advancing increase in retirement age of women to 65
- Netanyahu to meet Trump and Clinton today: Under the cover of objectivity, is the Prime Minister again intervening in the US elections
- (MK) Oren Hazan arrived at military exercise in Negev and passed out business cards to soldiers
- (Arab) Lod resident shot dead in front of her children; her husband tried to murder her two years ago
- (The link between) Amir Peretz, a German spy and a mysterious trust fund
- New York-Ashdod: When Netanyahu and Abbas Perform a Duet in Ramallah // Haaretz Editorial
- AIPAC, enough // Rogel Alpher
--Meretz leader MK Zehava Galon reacts to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN.
As part of an ongoing series, APN ran this message in the Washington Jewish
Week and the Baltimore Jewish Times from Major General (res.) Gadi Shamni, a former
military secretary to the Prime Minister, former military attaché to the U.S., and top
commander of IDF forces in the West Bank .
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“On the Harel Brigade legacy they want to install (Rehavam Zeevi) Gandhi’s (legacy) – with the transfer, expelling Arabs and fleeing the battle in its midst?”
--Zvi Kesse, 86, of Ramat Hasharon, is one of numerous Palmach veterans campaigning against the government decision to commemorate infamous former general and minister Rehavam Zeevi at a national memorial site that symbolizes the Palmach generation and its Harel Brigade.
“Have a little sensitivity. Our generation may be nearing the end of the road, but we have children, grandchildren and families.”
--Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Horev, 92, also expressed his shame and abhorrence at the government plan to build a memorial for the infamous former general and minister, Rehavam Zeevi, at a national memorial site that symbolizes the Palmach generation and its Harel Brigade.